


The Ever Lasting Glory.

by steeleye



Series: Troopers. [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Gen, Humour, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 18:57:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 95,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A Starship Troopers xover; Buffy had always hated spiders, yes she was the Slayer, but even tiny spiders in the bath had given her the wig. Now she was faced by giant, nightmare spiders with guns, it was enough to make even the bravest slayer scream!





	1. Chapter 1

The Ever Lasting Glory.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the book 'Starship Troopers' by Robert Heilein, I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** The book, 'Starship Troopers', **NOT** the movie.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English (the original and best) which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Post BtVS season 5. First story in the 'Troopers' series.

 **Words:** Thirty-two chapters of 3000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Watch out for them bugs!

 **Summary:** A Starship Troopers xover; Buffy had always hated spiders, yes she was the Slayer, but even tiny spiders in the bath had given her the wig. Now she was faced by giant, nightmare spiders with guns, it was enough to make even the bravest slayer scream!

0=0=0=0

**Revelo Drive, Sunnydale, 13th July, 2199.**

Waking up with a cry of alarm, Buffy sat bolt upright in bed and looked around her bedroom with wild frightened eyes. Why was she here? What had happened? Why wasn't she dead?

Breathing deeply as she tried to control her wildly beating heart, Buffy began to remember what had happened, not that it was actually all that difficult because it was so fresh in her mind. Thinking back to the previous night, which only felt like a few moments ago. she had clear memories of her fight with Glory; she remembered saying goodbye to Dawn and telling her to look after her friends, she also had a clear memory of jumping off Glory's tower and falling through the glowing blue portal before...before...

Waking up in her own bedroom? Just for a moment Buffy considered the possibility that there was a hell dimension which was an exact copy of her own bedroom. Discarding this idea as being too weird even for Sunnydale, she began to look around her room. Even with the drapes closed, she could see that this room wasn't an _exact_ copy of her bedroom. Things were subtly different, out of place, changed. Turning her head, she looked to see what time it was. Instead of seeing her familiar, battered old alarm clock, she saw what looked like a piece of deep red, almost see-through plastic which flashed the numbers, zero, seven, three, zero at her.

No sooner had she recognised the 'clock' for what it was; it started to beep at her, it began softly but soon became more insistent as the beeping grew louder. Reaching out, Buffy was about to pick the 'clock' up and try to switch it off when it stopped beeping as soon as her fingers touched it.

“Cool,” Buffy murmured in a low voice, “if its seven-thirty,” she asked herself, “it must be time to get up.”

Pushing back her bed clothes, Buffy swung her legs out of bed and slowly stood up. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was wearing her usual bedtime attire of PJ bottoms and an old tank top. Walking over to her window, she drew back the curtains and looked outside. The early morning sun shone down on a Revello Drive which looked the same as the Revello Drive she knew, but somehow it wasn't. Again things looked elusively different, watching for several minutes she tried to work out what had changed from the last time she'd looked at this scene.

Suddenly the reason things looked different occurred to her; it was the trees, they looked taller, older. Buffy frowned for a moment more as a car drove silently by down the street. Telling herself she was seeing things, she tried to ignore the fact that the 'car' didn't have any wheels and that it had been floating along the road. This, Buffy told herself was plainly impossible as cars didn't float, they had wheels. Deep down of course she knew the truth, the car had been floating and it didn't have wheels.

“Okay,” Buffy moaned quietly, “I fell through Glory's portal and I've landed in a reality where they have floating cars.” she took an extra deep breath, “That's cool, I can totally live with floating cars...” she smiled as another thought struck her, “...Xander will be _sooo_ pissed he missed this!”

Turning away from the window, Buffy looked around her room again trying to spot any other differences; cool looking alarm clocks and floating cars couldn't be the only things that had changed. Walking slowly over to her dressing table, Buffy noticed a few other things that were different, a chair out of place and hung with clothes she didn't remember buying. There were posters of what looked like futuristic rock bands on her walls, looking at one closely it took Buffy a moment or two to realise that all the pictures were three dimensional, it was all very strange.

Now standing in front of her dressing table, Buffy examined the photographs slipped under the edge of her mirror. In her own room these photos (she again noted that they were all three dimensional) would have been of herself with Xander, Willow and Dawn she even had one of a rather grumpy looking Giles. But these photos didn't show any of her old friends. Yes, there were ones showing herself with Dawn or Dawn and their Mom. But, the majority of them showed Buffy smiling or laughing with her arms around the necks of her two, very best friends in all the world...Cordelia Chase and Harmony Kendal. Crying out in alarm Buffy stepped back from the 'evil' mirror and caught a glimpse of her own reflection.

“OH! My god!” Buffy gasped as she stepped back towards the mirror and started to study her own reflection, at least she thought it was her own reflection. Staring in shock at the girl staring back at her, Buffy frowned as the girl in the mirror frowned, “What's happened to me?” she asked as she touched her face, was it really her?

Looking closely at the Buffy in the mirror, Buffy saw that she looked younger than she had been only twenty-four hours earlier. Her hair was longer and someone had done something to her nose and made it, if anything, even more 'cuter' than it had been. she also noticed that her complexion was flawless without even a hint of shinny, greasy skin or enlarged pores. Somehow she looked 'made-up' without even the slightest trace of cosmetics. Getting over her initial shock, she smiled at herself, this was exactly how she'd always imagined herself looking when she'd been a young teen. Okay it was shallow and she'd not thought like that in years, but, at the same time it was still sort of 'way cool'.

The smile on Buffy's lips was wiped away as her eyes fell on yet another photo of Cordy, Harmony and herself. This photo showed all three of them wearing cheerleaders outfits. Well, when she said 'wearing' she used the term loosely, she'd seen photos of bikini models wearing more than the three teenage girls in the picture. Standing up, Buffy realised that her bladder was reminding her it hadn't been emptied in quite some time, while her stomach was complaining that it needed refuelling. Next she caught the merest hint of body odour. Turning away from the mirror, she grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom.

0=0=0=0

After finishing her morning bathroom routine, Buffy had gone back to her room to dry her hair, dress and try to come to grips with all the new wonders she'd seen. There'd been a sonic toothbrush that she could actually see cleaning and whitening her teeth as she'd used it. There was the little razor thing that wasn't a razor, but it had removed the hairs from her legs and underarms like nothing she'd used before. But the greatest wonder she'd seen on her trip back from the bathroom was Dawn.

While Buffy appeared to have got younger overnight, Dawn looked older. No longer the dorky fourteen year old, Dawn was now a tall, attractive, sixteen year old who had appeared to be really pleased to see her sister. Buffy was shocked, yes she loved her sister, but there had also been that older sister, younger sister thing that she was sure they'd have grown out of given time.

“Okay,” Buffy sighed as she sat on the edge of her bed, “lets see if I can get this straight...I jumped off Glory's tower to save my sister and the world and landed in...in...my bedroom?” That, she decided, was way strange even by Sunnydale's standards, “Right, so I've landed in a version of my bedroom that has some really cool stuff and my sister isn't an annoying little brat any more...I wonder...” Buffy gasped with hope, maybe in this version of her life her mother was still alive, “...Mom?”

Stopping herself from rushing downstairs dressed only in a damp towel, Buffy paused long enough to find some clothes. The clothes she found where a little different than those she normally wore. Her wardrobe appeared to consist of really short skirts and revealing tops. What the hell, Buffy told herself as she picked out a skirt that wasn't too short and a blouse that wasn't overly see-throughy. Dressed, if you used the term loosely, she burst out of her room and almost ran downstairs and into the kitchen.

“MOM!” she cried with joy as she saw her mother sitting at the breakfast bar sipping a cup of coffee and reading from the screen of some sort of really thin, hand held, computer.

Throwing herself at her mother, Buffy buried her face in her mother's hair as she hugged her really tightly like she'd never let her go.

“Mom, Mom, Mom,” Buffy sobbed with relief and joy.

“What's wrong honey?” Joyce returned her daughter hug, “Are you ill and could you not hug me quite so tightly?”

“Sorry,” Buffy released her mother and wiped the tears of happiness from her eyes, “I was just so glad to see you alive.”

“Alive!?” Joyce looked at her daughter as if she'd turned bright blue overnight.

“Of course you're alive!” Buffy replied hurriedly as she tried to think up something to explain her strange behaviour, “I...I had a really vivid nightmare where I dreamt you'd died...” Buffy smiled self-consciously, “...it was so real and when I saw you I was totally so relieved...”

“But you're okay now?” Joyce asked with a concerned smile.

“Yes,” Buffy replied as she tried not to burst into tears again, “in fact I'm so much more than okay now...”

“Hey what's going on?” Dawn asked from the door to the kitchen.

“Buffy had a nightmare and thought I'd died,” Joyce explained to her younger daughter.

“Oh my god!” Dawn exclaimed as she rushed over to hug her sister, “I had a terrible dream too!”

“You did!?” Joyce and Buffy chorused.

“I dreamt that some psycho woman in a red dress was going to kill me with a big knife and Buffy rescued me!”

“Oh my god!” Buffy gasped; this was just too weird, she needed answers and she could think of only one person who could supply her with those answers...Giles.

0=0=0=0

Buffy walked into Sunnydale High's library thinking that she must be getting punch drunk with all the weirdness she was seeing and experiencing. First, she discovered that not only did she look younger but she really was in fact younger. She was still eighteen and today was graduation day. The being younger, she could, quite honestly, live with; the idea that it was graduation day all over again, not so much. It seemed unfair that having defeated the mayor once she was going to have to do it all over again.

But there was something else, something much worse that had driven Buffy to lock herself in one of the stalls in the girl's restroom and weep uncontrollably for about five minutes. Buffy had been walking along the corridor towards the library when she'd bumped into Willow and Xander. It had been quite obvious to Buffy after only a few seconds that her two oldest and dearest friends weren't her friends here. Yes, they knew her but they weren't her friends, they didn't move in the same circles, it was also pretty obvious that Willow and Xander were girl and boyfriends. This Buffy could deal with, but it didn't help her come to terms that here they'd never been her closest buddies. After washing her face, she checked herself out in the restroom's mirror and decided she was good to go. Leaving the restroom behind her Buffy retraced her steps towards the library. If anyone could tell her what was going on, Giles could.

“GILES!” Buffy cried out as she burst into the library, she saw Giles standing in his accustomed place behind the counter, unusually he appeared to be working on a computer with an incredibly slim screen. “Giles!” Buffy repeated as she came to a halt in front of her old mentor, it was only then that she saw the look in his eyes which stopped her cold, “S-sorry, I meant Mr Giles...” the slightly annoyed look on Giles' face slowly vanished as he raised an eyebrow and studied Buffy for several long seconds.

“Miss Summers,” Giles spoke, “what can I do for you this bright, sunny, graduation day morning?”

“I-I'm sorry about j-just now,” Buffy stammered as it dawned on her that Giles was different in this world too, “I was just so glad to find you here...”

“Were else would I be?” Giles asked, he now had a slightly bemused smile on his lips, “Although I am surprised that you of all people would be rushing into the library so early in the day, you have books to return, perhaps?”

“No! Yes! Probably!” Buffy was confused and wasn't sure what to do or say, “Erm...I just wanted to see you before _Graduation_ because its like the _last_ day of school and I wanted to say goodbye and...and thanks for...everything?”

Buffy saw no hint in Giles' eyes that today would be any different from any other school graduation day. Perhaps today would go off without all the death and destruction of the graduation that she'd already experienced.

“Yes, well,” Giles seemed a little confused by Buffy's utterances, “it's always nice...and in your case, surprising, to hear that a pupil appreciates a teacher's efforts...” Giles paused, obviously trying to think of what he should say next, a light came on behind his eyes when a subject for discussion popped into his mind. “Have you given any more thought as to what you want to do with your life now you've graduated?” he asked, “I'd heard a rumour that you and Miss Chase were going to enlist for a term of Federal service...”

“You did?” Buffy didn't like the sound of this 'enlisting' thing.

“Or maybe I heard wrong,” Giles sounded a little disappointed, “Of course its entirely up to you, making these sorts of decisions are the only true freedoms a man or woman has.” Giles paused to study Buffy for a moment, “Miss Summers...Buffy, while I don't want to unduly influence you I've always thought of you as a kind and helpful girl, if a little scatter brained. I always thought that perhaps you'd go into nursing or one of the other 'welfare' services, of course if you were to do so having completed a term of Federal Service would be of great benefit to you career. Have you thought of which branch of Federal government you'd like to try for?”

“Not really,” Buffy shrugged, once again things were happening too quickly for her to process properly, “hey...” Buffy laughed thinking of the time Xander had turned into a soldier that Halloween, “...maybe I'll join the army!”

0=0=0=0

The Graduation Ceremony went off without a solar eclipse, vampires, or the students having to fight for their lives. Another big plus was that the mayor didn't turn into a giant snake. In fact the mayor was a nice sounding man who gave a mercifully short speech about how today was the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale. This came as a big shock to Buffy because she'd been under the impression that graduation day had been held on the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale. Eventually graduation came to an end after Principle Snyder had given Buffy a genuinely pleasant smile as he handed over her certificate.

“Well done Summers,” he said softly as he shook her hand, “I never knew you had it in you, good luck with the future.”

More than a little punch drunk, Buffy had wandered the corridors of her school asking herself what she should do now, it seemed that in this reality, graduation was a private affair between students, their teachers and a few honoured guests, parents were not allowed. Standing at her locker, Buffy cleaned it out for what she suspected would be the last time. Nothing really made any sense to her, she was surrounded by people she knew but at the same time didn't know. Snyder had been nice to her, Giles had been just a little distant. Her mother was alive and well, her sister was older while she was younger, and, oh yeah, she seemed to have landed two hundred years in the future. Right at the moment all Buffy wanted to do was to sit in a dark room until everything went back to normal.

“Hi girlfriend!”

Buffy recognised the voice belonging to the arm that was now wrapped around her shoulder.

“Cordelia!” Buffy tried to sound sincere as she plastered a big, 'happy' smile on her face.

“Buffy!” squealed Harmony as she hit Buffy full on enveloping her in a warm, some would say very warm embrace; Buffy noticed there was a curtain amount of 'wandering hands', she started to wonder if Harmony and herself were more than just 'friends'; at the moment nothing would have surprised her.

“Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!” Harmony squeezed Buffy hard as she kissed Buffy's cheek. “If it hadn't been for you I'd never have graduated!”

“You wouldn't?” Buffy fought free of the overly grateful girl.

“No!” Harmony let Buffy go but still stood very close as she looked down at her with more than a little hero worship in her eyes.

“I think what Harm is totally like trying to say,” Cordelia explained as her face split into a wide grin, “is that she'd willingly have your babies if you so desired.”

“CORDY!” Buffy and Harmony gasped together.

“Whatever,” Cordelia shrugged, “come on, lets totally get out of this dump. Lets have some like major fun!”

“Yeah!” Harmony agreed.

Very soon Buffy found herself walking towards the exit between her two taller friends, her life, she decided was majorly weird, but these versions of Cordelia and Harmony seemed nicer than the girls she remembered and hell, she needed some fun right now.

“Hey Buffy,” Cordelia tightened her grip on Buffy's waist, you still coming to the Federal Building with me tomorrow, right? Harm still won't come.”

“What would I do for Federal service?” Harmony demanded, “I'm not clever like you guys, I'd probably end up testing survival gear on Pluto or something!”

“Whatever,” Cordy laughed lightly, “so, Buffy, you coming?”

“Yeah,” Buffy shrugged, “Why not?”

0=0=0=0

**Author's Note:**   
The stories in the 'Troopers' series are very much based on the book, 'Starship Troopers' and not the god awful film of the same name. I've tried to keep to the spirit of the original book (more so than 'that' film), but I've put in more action sequences and a lot less introspection. I've also updated the technology but I've tried not to go over the top with it. Like Heilein I've not attempted to explain how things work, they just 'do'! 


	2. Chapter 2

2.

If the truth were told, Buffy hadn't intended to enlist, she'd certainly not intended to enlist in the Mobile Infantry. Even the recruiting sergeant at the Federal Building had looked more than a little dubious when she presented her test results to him and said that she'd like to join up.

“You do know the Mobile Infantry has only been taking women for the last three months, right?” the soldier had asked.

Replying that she knew this, Buffy admitted to herself that she didn't, but in the state of mind she was in at the moment she didn't really care. Joining the army seemed a better option than running away from home again and being a waitress in some sleazy diner somewhere...if they still had 'sleazy diners' in the future. The events that had brought all this to a head was the row she'd had with her mother the previous night. It'd come to light that her mother had Buffy's life all planned out for her. First Buffy was going on an extended vacation, a grand tour of the solar system stopping off at the Rings of Saturn and the Moons of Jupiter plus several other interesting and no doubt exciting places on the way. When Buffy got back to Earth, she was going to go to college where she'd study 'Art History'. Once she'd graduated from college, she was going to help her mother expand the family antiques business before, no doubt, getting married and having children.

All Buffy had said was that she was thinking about serving a term and becoming a citizen. After she'd come home from school the previous day, she'd found the web site for Federal Service on her computer (it seemed that in this time everyone had a personnel computer). It could be used for just about everything from research to calling your friends up to ask them if they wanted to go out. Mr Giles' words about serving a term in Federal Service had struck a chord with her, after all she was still 'the slayer' and as there didn't appear to be much in the way of evil going on in Sunnydale, she'd been wondering how to use her powers for good. The army seemed to be as good a place to start as any...plus Cordy was joining the Navy, that was the 'Space' Navy, she wanted to be a pilot. So, if Cordy was going to enlist could Federal Service be so bad?

After simply mentioning the possibility of enlisting to her mother, Joyce had flown into a temper; she'd told her daughter in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to throw her life away on some wild juvenile fantasy. That she'd soon get over these silly ideas about joining the army or indeed any other branch of the Federal Government once she'd started college. Buffy didn't quite see it that way however, getting angry at her mother (she'd always had problems with people trying to organise her life for her) she'd told her mom that it was her life and she could do what she wanted with it; she also told her mother that she would be going down to the Federal Building in the morning to look at her options.

Joyce had replied that if she did, she needn't bother coming back. It was just after this exchange that Buffy had walked out of the front door and slammed it behind her; she had a terrible feeling of deja-vu, history was repeating itself. Perhaps, she told herself, as she stood on the pathway leading to the road, maybe she should go back inside and try to make up with her mom. Maybe work something out so they'd both be happy. But somehow, she knew that wasn't going to happen, she was who she was, there was no use denying it...after all she'd tried turning her back on what she was a couple of times in the past and that hadn't worked out so well; she'd always come right back and been the slayer again. It just seemed terribly unfair that having found her mother alive and well, it looked like she was going to lose her again.

“Buffy!”

Turning to look back at the house, Buffy saw Dawn close the front door behind her before walking over and joining her.

“Mom send you to try and talk me out of it?” Buffy asked and immediately regretted what she'd said.

“No!” Dawn looked slightly hurt as she shook her head, “I came to tell you that I'm proud of you, and I'll support you in anyway I can.”

“You will?” Buffy replied aghast.

“Sure, why not?” Dawn shrugged, “I don't see why Mom's got such a problem...I mean, no offence, but you're a cheerleader, I don't think even Mom thought you'd do so well on your SATs.”

“She didn't, huh?” Buffy bristled a little.

“No,” Dawn shook her head again, “I think that you surprised everyone, you certainly surprised me...I mean this last year you've changed, grown up, become more responsible and the way you helped Harmony...”

“I did? I mean I have?” Buffy couldn't help wonder about how different her new life was compared to her old one.

“Look,” Dawn sighed and reached out taking her sister's hand in her own, “I love you, I've always loved you and I always will. If you want to serve a term, you go on and do it. Just make sure its what you _really_ want to do...I'm incredibly proud of you and I'll work on mom and try to get her to come round. In the mean time...” Dawn smiled, “...I called Harm, she says to come and stay at her house for the night.”

“Dawnie,” Buffy drew her sister into her arms, “you're the best sister anyone could ever have.”

“Yeah I know,” Dawn laughed as she returned her sisters embrace, “I'm just _tooooo_ good!”

0=0=0=0

The process of enlisting for a term of Federal Service took three days. On the first day a prospective enlistee had to complete tests much like the SATs that Buffy had just taken at school. These tests gave the authorities an idea of what a 'recruit' was mentally capable of and enabled them to give the recruit a list of career options. Once a recruit had chosen an option or options on the second day they'd be given a series of interviews to see whether they were mentally and physically suited to the job they'd chosen. This would then be followed by a medical. If the recruit hadn't flunked out or changed their minds the 'oath' was administered and they were sent home for the night and told to come back in the morning.

“Do you know what'll happen to you if you don't come back in the morning?” the recruiting sergeant had asked Buffy as he examined all her test results.

“Erm, I get shot for desertion or something?” Buffy had replied only half jokingly; she had every intention of turning up the following morning, she really had nowhere else to go.

“No,” the sergeant shrugged as he stamped Buffy's papers, “Nothing happens other than your records are stamped 'Term Uncompleted' and you never get a second chance...I want you to think about that tonight, think about it really hard, okay?”

“Okay,” Buffy replied as she took back her papers, “I'll totally do that.”

It had quickly dawned on Buffy that the Federation did everything in its power to put you off doing a 'Term' as it was called. However, if you persisted and more or less demanded that they take you, as long as you weren't mentally unstable they were bound by law to accept you and find you something to do. After three years you got to retire as a full citizen. Of course like so many things in life the idea that a 'Term of Service' was only three years wasn't exactly true. A 'Term of Service' was a _minimum_ of three years or as long as the Federation wanted or needed you. Of course you could resign at any point, the Federation had no interest in keeping people who wanted to leave; but if you resigned you'd never be a citizen and you'd never be able to vote or run for public office.

None of that bothered Buffy as she waited in the Federal Building the next morning, near the monorail terminal. Her mother was still firmly set against the idea of her serving a term, Dawn had done her best to try and talk her 'round. Unfortunately this had caused their mother to ban Dawn from having any contact with her sister. Dawn of course had ignored this prohibition, and was there at the Federal Building to see her sister off as was Harmony; Cordelia had already 'shipped out' the previous day.

“I'll write to you,” Dawn reassured her sister.

“And me!” Harmony added.

“You remember to write back,” Dawn reminded her sister, “send anything for me to Harm's house, okay?”

“I will,” Buffy replied suddenly sad that she was leaving her 'sister' so soon after she'd met her, “I'll totally write to both of you I'll even write to mom, you never know...”

“I don't know why your mom's got like a problem with this,” Harmony said sadly, “I mean if I was off to serve a term, even if it was testing survival equipment of Pluto, my mom would be totally proud no matter what I did...”

“I think mom just had a plan in her head of how things were supposed to work out,” Dawn explained, “and then...”

“I came along and spoilt it all,” Buffy hung her head and refused to make eye contact for a moment.

“Don't, blame yourself, Buff,” Harmony stepped up to Buffy and gathered her in her arms.

“It'll be okay, big sis,” Dawn joined in making it a group hug.

“Okay,” Buffy wiped her eye as she broke away from her sister and Harmony, “I've got to go now...”

Following Buffy up to the platform where the monorail waited for her, Dawn and Harmony stood close together as they tried to look brave and happy for her. The truth was that they'd both miss her terribly. Dawn would miss her big sister because she'd never really been separated from her before. Buffy had always been there for her, someone to play with, someone to tell all her secrets to, someone to go to with her problems. Yeah, they'd fought and argued, what sisters hadn't? But, it had never lasted long and once all the tears were dried they'd be back together like nothing had happened.

For Harmony it was like losing a sister too, she'd never had a friend like Buffy. Harmony wasn't very clever but she wasn't stupid, while Cordelia tolerated her and looked on her as a sort of charity case; Buffy really liked her and helped her and saw that she wasn't some kind of dummy who's only redeeming feature was that she had big boobs. Plus Harmony loved Buffy with a passion that had stopped her from really looking at boys since they'd met in Junior High.

Sitting in the passenger capsule, Buffy watched out the window as the monorail slowly pulled out of the Sunnydale Terminal. Watching, she saw her sister and her best friend growing smaller and smaller as the capsule picked up speed. Soon Dawn and Harmony were lost to her sight as the monorail negotiated a wide curve before getting onto the long straight that would take it all the way to Seattle.

Sitting there by herself Buffy sat back and wondered at how quickly she'd grown to love the people she'd really only just met. Okay, she thought, Dawn and her mom where so much like her real mother and sister that it would be impossible for her not to love them, but Harmony? In her own time she'd never liked Harmony, there'd not been a lot to like anyway. But this version of Harmony...well... Buffy had seen the respect, even love in the blonde girl's eyes every time she'd caught Harmony looking at her. Buffy had meant it when she said she'd write to Harmony, how could she do otherwise?

0=0=0=0

The training to become a fully fledged Mobile Infantryman or woman lasted nearly a year. First the MI took soft kids who thought they were fit and showed them what fitness really meant. After that the MI turned them into soldiers. Finally the MI turned the soldiers into Mobile Infantry.

To be honest Buffy had no problem with the physical side of the training, after all she was the slayer. Her main difficulty was trying not to appear _too_ good. At the start of her training there were just over eighty women and girls in her recruit battalion that numbered over five hundred. Over the first few months numbers rapidly dwindled until Buffy was one of about a dozen women left who'd not washed out. Male drop-out rates were comparable but not quite as obvious due to the larger number of male recruits involved.

For Buffy it had been a continual struggle to _not_ excel, to not go at things one-hundred percent. Of course her life wasn't made any easier by the instructors who could see that she wasn't giving it all she had and were pushing her to the limit. However she passed every test, every exercise that they gave the recruits and at the end of the year she 'passed out' with all the other survivors and was sent to her new unit.

During her training Buffy saw how the MI were not really ready to accept women into its ranks. The MI were the only branch of the army, or indeed the entire federal system that did not accept women into its ranks. During her study sessions at Camp Currie, Buffy discovered that the regulations about who could be an MI had been changed only a few months before she'd enlisted, she'd been one of the very first female recruits to complete MI training.

Boot camp might have been bad but Buffy soon found joining her new unit infinitely worse. First off, no one had realised they were receiving a female replacement; she found that this often happened over the next couple of years until there were enough female MI around to make a difference. Once aboard the Terran Federation Corvette Transport, Rambahadur Limbu, Buffy found herself immediately separated from the rest of her squad by being billeted in 'Ladies Country', north of bulkhead thirty. Her platoon sergeant had informed her in no uncertain terms that he didn't like the idea of women in the MI, and he thought that she would be bad for morale and too much of a 'distraction' to the male MI. At the time Buffy had wondered why the platoon sergeant hadn't thought that she might be distracted by all the young, super fit, handsome guys around her, but she'd thought it wise not to bring this up.

As a result of having to live in 'ladies country' along with all the female navy types; the navy had its own weird little customs about women in the service, but as the crew of a starship was nearly fifty percent women the navy's rules and regulations were more relaxed than the army's. Because of the army seemingly being afraid that Buffy and her female comrades would somehow lead the male troopers astray in some way, she was isolated from her squad mates and never got to bond with them. As a result of this, on her first combat mission Buffy very nearly died.

0=0=0=0

**Historical note.**

Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu, VC, 10th Gurkha Rifles, Borneo, 21st November 1965.  
Leading his support group in the van of the attack L/Cpl Rambahadur could see that the nearest enemy trench had a sentry manning a machine gun in it. Determined to gain first blood he inched himself forward until the sentry spotted him and opened fire. The sentry immediately wounded one of L/Cpl Rambahadur's men. Rushing forward he reached the enemy trench and killed the sentry, thereby gaining a foothold on the objective. With a complete disregard for the hail of fire Limbu led his fire-group to a better fire position.  
Seeing both men of his own group seriously wounded L/Cpl Rambahadur immediately set about rescuing his comrades. He crawled forward, in full view of at least two enemy machine gun posts which concentrated their fire on him and he was driven back by the accurate and intense fire. After a pause he started to move forward again.  
Rushing forward he hurled himself to the ground beside one of the wounded and calling for support from two light machine guns, he picked up the man and carried him to safety. Without hesitation he returned for the other wounded man and carried him to safety through a hail of enemy bullets. It had taken twenty minutes to complete this gallant action and the events leading up to it. For all but a few seconds this NCO had been moving alone in full view of the enemy and under the continuous aimed fire of their automatic weapons. His outstanding personal bravery, selfless conduct, complete contempt of the enemy and determination to save the lives of the men of his fire-group set an incomparable example and inspired all who saw him. Finally, L/Cpl Rambahadur was responsible for killing four more enemy soldiers as they attempted to escape.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

 **The Battle of Klendathu, 14th October, 2200.**

Klendathu was an ugly planet, a Bug planet. Jettisoning her main chute at about fifty feet, Buffy came in to land on the Bug homeworld using her jets. As soon as her feet touched the sandy soil of Klendathu, she pulled her plasma rifle from its docking port on her back and glanced up at the little green icons that denoted the positions of her squad-mates on her Head Up Display. Seeing that she was slightly out of alignment with the man on her right, she used some 'go-juice' to shift her position about one hundred yards to the north before her squad leader noticed.

“On the bounce, Summers,” Corporal Hernandez called anyway; obviously he'd spotted her coming down a little south of the rest of the squad and picked up on it, Hernandez was always looking to find fault with anything Buffy did.

Eventually finding herself in position on the military crest of a long, low ridge, she took a moment or two to familiarise herself with the terrain. This piece of Klendathu was covered in soft, sandy soil and was scattered with thorn bushes and weirdly shaped trees that grew to about thirty feet tall. Here and there she spotted walled off areas containing what might have been crops of some kind. There were also giant windmills (most of which had been destroyed during the naval bombardment) possibly for generating electricity or maybe pumping water. Here and there were rows of odd looking machines that Intelligence thought were there to extract moisture from the atmosphere.

Of the Bugs there wasn't a sign, in fact without her HUD, Buffy would have believed she was all on her own as her closest squad-mates were about half a mile to her left and right. Second Squad, Third Platoon, 3rd Battalion 19th Mobile Infantry Regiment, were deployed on the north side of their Division's main landing zone to act as a tripwire in case the Bugs attacked from that direction. If the bugs did attack, the platoon was to slowly fall back while engaging the bugs thus giving time for the rest of the platoon to move up in support from its positions further south.

Knowing that the squad would be in position for some time, Buffy moved forward and lay down in cover where she could observe the ground to her front. What she saw was very much the same as what she could see on the 'friendly' side of the ridge. More semi-desert with scatterings of incomprehensible Bug machines and construction. Lying there watching for any sign of bug activity, Buffy thought it odd that there wasn't any signs of bug habitation. Yes, she'd read the briefing material that said the bugs lived in underground cities, but she'd not really believed it was true until now.

The briefings had also told her that the Bugs looked like giant, nightmare spiders, that lived in insect-like colonies but weren't really either spiders or insects. Bug society seemed to be split into warriors who did nothing but fight and workers who couldn't fight and did everything else. There was also assumed to be some sort of 'Royalty' that ran bug society, but no one had ever seen any bug that looked as if it might be in charge. At the moment the Federation was working on the assumption that their forces would be facing dangerous but otherwise 'stupid' bug warriors and harmless workers. There were several things that really worried Buffy about this information. It seemed to her that an awful lot of assumptions were being made about the bugs and nowhere did it tell you how to easily identify a warrior from a harmless worker other than by size. Buffy shrugged inside her suit, she supposed if push came to shove a bug trying to kill her was a warrior, if it ignored her it was probably a worker.

The hours passed without any sign of bug activity, there was some fighting off to the far south-west but so far it seemed that the bugs had been caught asleep at the wheel and the Division had landed without any serious opposition. During this time, Corporal Hernandez had flown up and down the line checking on everyone's positions, of course he told Buffy that she was in the wrong location and ordered her fifty yards to her right. Moving into her new fire position, Buffy couldn't see how it was any better than her old position. Just another example of her squad leader being a complete asshole she told herself. Settling down to watch for bugs and trying not fall asleep from boredom, she started to review her latest letters from Dawn and Harmony. 

According to her sister, their mother hadn't softened her attitude to her joining the MI one little bit, she appeared to see it as some sort of personal betrayal. Harmony's letter had been much more up beat as she didn't have to deal with Buffy's family problems. Somehow, Harmony had got herself a job as the PA to the boss of a small engineering company just outside Sunnydale. Harmony sounded as if she was enjoying herself, she'd certainly looked happy in the video letter she'd sent to Buffy. As soon as this mission was over, Buffy told herself she must write back to both Dawn and Harmony and maybe send a quick note to her mother; perhaps if she kept writing to her mom she might soften and write back.

“BUGS! BUGS! HUNDREDS OF....AAAAGH!”

Hearing the call over her comms, Buffy looked up and scanned the area to her front, she saw no sign of bugs anywhere. Just as she was about to move and hopefully get into a better position where she might be able to spot the attacking bugs the sound of a massive explosion was picked up by her external microphones, it had come from behind her! Turning she saw the plain to her rear covered in bugs. They appeared to be coming from three separate locations about two or three hundred yards apart, it was as if the bugs had tunnelled under the ridge to come up behind the MI position. Before she could move to a new position, Buffy saw a tactical missile streak in from her left.

“OH CRAP!” she cried as she hugged the ground and tried to cover her face plate.

Unfortunately Buffy was just a little too slow, the missile exploded with the familiar, blinding flash of a nuclear explosion. The Mini-nuke, probably fired by one of the squad's two NCOs who were the only people equipped with missile launchers, exploded sweeping away the bugs issuing from the hole on the far right. It also blanked out anyone's face plate who happened to be looking in the direction of the explosion and killed everyone's comms within half a mile of the detonation.

Blinded and effectively deaf, the explosion had also overloaded her external pick-ups, Buffy had to rely on her HUD to tell her where the enemy was until everything settled down and came back on line. Not trusting herself to be able to get up and move, she pointed her plasma rifle at the bug horde and started to fire. Her HUD told her she was scoring hits and she and her squad-mates were killing bugs by the dozens. It was only after she'd been firing at the bugs for a couple of minutes that she noticed something, the bugs weren't shooting back.

“What's wrong with this picture?” Buffy called over the squawk-net, this was the comms channel that allowed squad members to talk amongst themselves without the need to use proper radio procedure.

“What are you talking about, Summers,” Corporal Hernandez's voice snapped back, “Shut up and keep shooting!”

“They're not firing back!” Buffy persisted, “They're not warriors, I repeat they're not firing at us.”

By this time Buffy's face plate had cleared and her external pick-ups were back on line, she could clearly see that the bugs weren't firing and as far as she could tell they weren't even carrying weapons.

“They're workers not...”

“I told you to shut up and keep firing, Summers,” Hernandez growled at her.

Screw you, Buffy thought but didn't say out loud, she stopped firing and instead used her eyes and brain. What she'd suspected was true, now she wasn't shooting she could plainly see the bugs were unarmed, they were also significantly smaller than she'd been told the warriors were. If the bug command were using workers to distract the MI that must mean that the warriors were else where. Suddenly Buffy's spider sense kicked in, just for a moment she giggled at the thought of using her 'spider sense' to detect bugs, the warning she was getting was like an unscratchable itch at the back of her brain.

Shifting her position, she moved to where she could see back over the ridge line, the sight she saw almost made her scream out loud with fright. The truth of the matter was that Buffy had never liked spiders, even the little ones you found in the bath. Okay, she was the slayer and really aught to know better, but spiders still gave her the wig, it was a girlie thing. Being scared of tiny, little spiders was bad enough, but being faced with huge, nightmare spiders the size of a horse and with a leg span of about twelve feet, it was almost enough to send Buffy's brain gibbering out of her skull to hide under the nearest rock. Add to this that the spiders from hell also had guns, it was amazing that she could do anything other than hide until the nightmare horrors went away.

Triggering her plasma rifle Buffy blasted the nearest bug straight in the 'face'. The monster's bodily fluids boiled as the plasma bolts burnt through its hide and superheated it's insides. Screaming incoherently, Buffy shifted her fire to the next bug and killed it. It wasn't until she was engaging the third bug that she registered the slugs hitting her armoured suit. Hitting the sand as the third bug lost all its legs on its left side but still kept on firing, she realised just how many bugs there were out there. There had to be hundreds maybe even thousands, she couldn't possibly kill them all.

Getting to her feet she bounced backwards a hundred yards and landed at the forward edge of the workers who were still advancing on the ridge line from what was now her rear. Buffy didn't need to hear the panicky orders being shouted over the squad-net and the squawk-net to tell her that the MI had made another big mistake. Not only had they underestimated the sneakiness of the bug commanders; but they'd deployed in a line that was too widely spaced. In their present formation the squad simply wouldn't be able to concentrate enough fire power to stop the bug attack. Another mini-nuke exploded amongst the warrior bugs incinerating hundreds of them, (this time Buffy was protected by the ridge from the nukes secondary effects) but it wasn't enough. The bugs didn't seem to care about casualties they just kept on coming. Also as the squad was only issued with two mini-nukes, one each for the squad leader and his assistant, the squad's only method of killing bugs in large number had now been expended.

0=0=0=0

The battle for the ridgeline soon turned into a disorganised whirlwind of flashing plasma rifles, streams of bug bullets and the smoky flames from hand flamers. Finding herself isolated from the rest of her squad and fighting desperately for her life, Buffy jumped clear of her little part of the fight leaving a couple of grenades and handfuls of fire pills behind her. Landing amongst the worker bugs who were now milling around in a directionless mass, she took the time to study her HUD as she shot down any worker that came too close for her mental and physical well-being.

It was then that she found that she was alone again, there wasn't a sign of any of her squad-mates and the warrior bugs were still advancing. Realising that her squad had been overrun, Buffy jumped towards what looked like a bug 'farm' over to her left front. After a nightmare flight with her feet only inches above the worker bug's grasping 'arms', she found herself alone and flying down what appeared to be a concrete lined irrigation ditch between two walled off areas. Coming to a junction where three channels met, Buffy landed so she could study her HUD again and hopefully find some survivors from her squad. The immediate area covered by the map on her HUD showed no sigh of either her squad or her platoon. By reducing the scale of the map, she was able to widen her search. Breathing a sigh of relief, she picked up some green icons denoting other MI to her north-east. After checking the range and bearing to them, she checked her fuel state, deciding she had more than enough fuel to reach the MI she was just about to 'bounce' when a bug appeared from around the corner of one of the drainage ditches.

Turning to face the bug as she grabbed for her hand flamer; before she could draw her flamer she was knocked off her feet by a burst of fire from the bug's weapon. Landing on her back the flamer was knocked out of her hand as the bug continued to fire as it advanced on her. Desperately trying to avoid the bug's bullets, Buffy scrambled on hands and knees along the ditch away from the monster.

Bug penetrators hit her suit making a sound like hail on a tin roof; the briefings she'd been given had told her that a fully armoured 'cap-trooper' had little to fear from bug weapons. Obviously whoever had written that briefing had never been shot at by a bug! Finding herself momentarily out of the bug's line of sight, she put her hand on her fire pill dispenser and worked the lever that dropped a handful of the small yellow and red pills into her armoured hand. This time when the bug appeared it received a hand full of fire pills in the face; they immediately burst into white hot flame as they made contact with the bug's hide.

Instantly the bug was hit it started to burn and do that rolling into a ball thing that spiders do when you set them on fire. Unfortunately for Buffy at least one of her fire pills landed on the bug's ammo pack which was strapped to its back. The little chemical pill easily burnt its way through the plastic casing and wedged itself between two rounds. Burning its way into one of the round's propellent casing the fire pill caused first one round to explode which then ignited another and another until all the spare ammunition (several thousands of rounds) exploded with a bang strong enough to blow Buffy off her feet again.

Knocked over backwards, Buffy hit the ditch's wall hard enough to crack the concrete. Most of her body was held firmly by her suit, however her head was able to move freely inside her helmet. This meant that when she hit the side of the irrigation ditch her head came into hard contact with the inside of her helmet. Groaning, she fell onto her hands and knees trying to fight the wave of nausea that threatened to overtake her, it was a fight she ultimately lost. Throwing up inside your helmet was one of the things MI troopers were specifically warned against doing. Luckily for her she didn't drown in her own vomit as she didn't throw up a lot. As she crouched there next to the burning bug, she could feel the nanites that inhabited the suit with her, crawl across her skin and start the clean up. Sucking on her water tube, Buffy rinsed out her mouth and spat, the nanites could deal with water as easily as they could vomit.

“Thanks guys,” Buffy croaked as her microscopic friends made short work of sanitising the inside of her suit.

A wave of dizziness hit her as Buffy tried to stand up. Failing in her efforts, she sat down heavily with her back against the wall of the ditch. Thankfully no other bugs turned up to finish off the dazed and disorientated trooper, a fact that Buffy was grateful for because just at the moment she was in no condition to fight off even one of the tiny spiders that she used to inhabit her bath at home; let alone one of the giant homicidal spiders that inhabited Klendathu. Sitting with her head in her hands, she didn't notice the MI land in the ditch near her until his jets threw up a cloud of dust and debris.

“Hey, trooper you okay?” came a cheerful male voice over her comms.

“I'll live,” Buffy admitted grudgingly, “I got blown off my feet and hit my head.”

“Sounds like your comms has been damaged too,” the mystery trooper knelt down and started to examine Buffy's helmet, “it's making you sound like a girl.”

“That's because I _am_ a girl...woman...whatever...”

“Oh!” the other trooper sounded more than a little surprised, “Erm, look I'm PFC Charlie Conroy, 1st Squad, 4th Platoon, The Ghost Riders.”

“Buffy Summers, Bearcats...” Buffy sat for a moment and realised she couldn't remember the rest of her unit designation, “Oh crap!”

“Oh crap, what?” Conroy asked concerned.

“I think I hit my head hard enough to make me forget stuff,” Buffy admitted.

“Sounds like a concussion,” Conroy replied as her rested an armoured hand on Buffy's armoured shoulder, “do you think you can bounce outta here if I give you a hand?”

“Yeah,” Buffy groaned, “help me stand up.”

This time when Buffy stood up she had someone to slump against and stop herself from falling over again.

“Thanks,” Buffy said as she regained her balance and started to feel better.

“Hey, you're kinda short for a trooper,” Conroy announced in surprise once Buffy was more or less upright.

“I'm a five-foot-two killing machine, so be careful what you say,” Buffy muttered; she'd grown aggressively touchy about comments concerning her height since she'd been in the army.

“Called Buffy?” Conroy replied sounding slightly amused, “What's the betting you're blonde too?”

“I am as it happens, what of it?”

“Short, blonde, called Buffy and with that whole 'killing machine' thing you've got going,” Conroy chuckled quietly, “you're my dream date! Wanna come out for a beer when we get outta this dump?”

“But we've only just met,” Buffy replied injecting a little faux horror into her voice.

“Life's short,” Conroy explained, “and likely to get shorter if we don't bounce outta here.”

“I can bounce...” Buffy replied, she felt almost completely recovered now, that was her slayer healing, plus Conroy's joking about like that had taken her mind of things for awhile there, “Okay which way do we...!”

Before Buffy could say 'go' a new voice intruded on her consciousness, a voice that filled her mind with dread.

“...Sauve qui peut! Home! Home! Pick-up and home! Any beacon you can hear. Six minutes! All hands, save yourselves, pick up your mates. Home on any beacon! Sauve qui...HISSSSSSSS” the voice dissolved into static before it could repeat itself.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

“I've got a beacon at one-eight-six degrees, range two-thousand yards,” Buffy announced as she turned so that the directional arrow on her HUD pointed towards the top of her face plate.

“Got it!” Conroy replied, “How are you for go-juice?”

“More than enough for two-thousand yards,” Buffy reassured him, “you?”

“Plenty...”

Right at that moment, Buffy's spider sense kicked in again.

“BUGS!” Buffy cried as she dragged her flamer from the clips on her thigh; turning she flamed the bug that was looming over them from the top of the irrigation ditch.

“Neat work, trooper!” Conroy called just before he incinerated yet another bug as it appeared next to the smouldering corpse of the first bug, “You get the feeling we're not welcome here?”

“Totally,” Buffy and Conroy turned their flamers onto another bug that was slithering down the side of the ditch half a dozen yards away.

“Okay, trooper,” Conroy turned to flame still another bug that was just bringing its weapon to bear on them, “lets get outta here...on the bounce!”

Jumping at the same time the two MI's jets kicked in together as they flew out of the ditch and into the open. The sight that greeted there eyes came as a shock to both of them, there seemed to be bugs everywhere and unlike before they all appeared to be warriors. Flaming down bugs as she skimmed just above the dusty surface, Buffy noted that Conroy had changed weapons and was cutting down bugs with his plasma rifle. Streams of bug penetrators reached out for the pair as the flew over the mass of bug warriors, but neither of them was seriously hit.

Deciding that she simply wasn't killing enough of the loathsome pseudo-spiders, Buffy used her left hand to toss grenades and scatter fire pills in her wake. They now had less than a thousand yards to go to get to the beacon and the retrieval shuttle, it seemed foolish to carry unused ordinance back up into orbit. Grounding, Buffy and Conroy found themselves clear of the bug horde, however their external pick-ups were detecting the sounds of multiple explosions and heavy weapons fire, both MI and bug.

“You okay?” Conroy asked as he came into land next to Buffy.

“I'm good,” Buffy replied as she took another bearing on the beacon, “just over eight-hundred yards to go.”

“Roger!” Conroy called back as he too checked the range and direction to the beacon, “Lets bounce!”

Once again, Buffy jumped into the air as she turned herself towards the beacon which lay on the opposite side of a low ridge from her present position. Flying low and fast, she suddenly found herself remembering all those nights she'd spent chasing vampires and demons around Sunnydale; she couldn't help but think that a power armour suit would have come in real useful back then. Her memories of vampire hunting back home were interrupted when a section of ground nearby gave way and dozens of bugs started to crawl from the hole.

Flying directly over the bug exit, Buffy dropped a grenade and a handful of fire pills on the bugs. Thinking that that should slow them down, she flew on not realising the Conroy, her new found buddy, was no longer flying next to her.

“BUFFY!” Conroy's voice came loudly over her comms.

Making a rather bouncy landing, Buffy turned to look back along the route she'd just taken. Unable to see around or over the thorn bushes that seemed to grow particularly thickly in this area, she boosted herself into the air. Jumping straight up, she looked back to see Charlie Conroy being dragged towards the bug-hole by several warriors. It was obvious even at the distance of fifty yards or more that Conroy was seriously injured; he wasn't fighting back and he appeared to be missing the lower half of his left leg.

“God-damn-it!” Buffy roared as she moved towards her buddy to make pick up on him, in the MI you never left a comrade behind, not that Buffy would have ever even considered the idea.

Flying nape of earth, Buffy burnt down several more bugs as she neared the bug hole. It looked like her previous attack on the hole had slowed the bugs exiting it. Landing next to the hole, she flamed two or three bugs who'd tried to interpose themselves between her and the bugs who were trying to drag the weakly struggling Conroy towards the hole. Deciding not to risk using her flamer, at this range, she could plainly see that Conroy had lost his left leg from the knee downwards, Buffy leapt at the bugs who were dragging off her friend.

One of the bugs turned and tried to bring its weapon into play. As if in slow motion, Buffy saw the triple barrelled gun track towards her. Although the bug appeared to be moving in slow motion, Buffy wasn't. Jumping towards the bug, she batted the gatling-gun-like weapon aside with the edge of her right hand, the barrels bent where she'd struck at it. Slayer strength and power armour were an effective mix, but Buffy always had to be careful she didn't damage herself or her suit; the Marauder suit she wore wasn't designed to take the stresses a slayer could put on it. 

Not giving the bug time to bring its wickedly powerful mandibles and grinding teeth into play she punched it in the middle of its eye cluster. The power of her blow stunned the bug long enough for her to pull off several of its legs and turn it over onto its back. With its remaining legs waving uselessly in the air, Buffy placed her foot on the bug's body, pulled her flamer and toasted the creature with a short burst of flame.

Turning towards the last bug, Buffy saw that it had almost got Conroy into the entrance of the hole. Using a short burn on her jets, she bounced over and kicked the bug in the side of what passed for its head. The bug let go of Conroy and staggered to one side, obviously stunned and disoriented the bug tripped over its own legs and slumped to the ground. Springing at the bug, she quickly kicked and punched it into a bloody, battered, mess before going back to help Conroy.

“Hey,” Conroy laughed weakly as Buffy came into land by his side, “remind me never to piss you off.”

“Yeah and its not even my time of the month,” Buffy checked Conroy's medical read outs, they didn't look _too_ bad, “come on trooper, lets get you to your feet...I mean foot.”

“Hey, don't sweat it Buff,” Conroy chuckled as Buffy tried to pull him to his foot, “I can call you Buff, right? Y'know I'm really looking forward to that date...”

Conroy was rambling now, his suit had injected him with blood coagulants and pain-meds. Although he'd lost half of his leg and the armour that had encased it he wasn't bleeding too badly and his suit was still functioning. However, even with slayer enhanced power armour strength, she could only just get him up right, there was no way she could carry him and bounce. Glancing at her chronometer, Buffy saw she had just over three minutes to get them both to the retrieval shuttle. By herself she'd make it with seconds to spare, with Conroy still in his suit they'd die here on the surface.

“Man,” Conroy giggled, “you're stronger than you look!”

“Okay,” Buffy lowered Conroy gently to the ground again, “I'm going to have to take you out of your suit.”

“Isn't that typical of modern woman?” Conroy asked dreamily, “Always wanting to get a guy's kit off...where's the romance...where's the love?”

“I promise you,” Buffy replied as she used the special tool that unlocked a trooper's armour, “once I get you out of here I'll give you all the love and romance you can handle.”

Fitting the tool into the socket on the back of Conroy's suit, Buffy twisted it once to the left and twice to the right. Immediately the suit fell apart leaving Conroy dressed only in the body suit MI wore under their armour. Once free of his armour, Buffy was able to pick Conroy up easily, he probably weighed less than her full load of weapons and ammo. Turning back onto the heading for the beacon, Buffy jumped, her jets kicked in and she flew as fast as she could towards the beacon. Behind her another wave of bugs burst from the hole and fired at the rapidly departing MI. Hearing the penetrators ring against her suit, Buffy used her body to protect the unarmoured Conroy.

Using the fuel in her jets lavishly, again there was no point in saving it and taking it back into orbit. Buffy flew over the ridge and saw the retrieval shuttle sitting on its landing wheels less than a three-hundred yards away. Once more glancing at her clock, Buffy saw that she now had less than two minutes to make it. Coming in to land at the end of her bounce, Buffy ran a few steps before jumping into the air again. As she did so she caught a glimpse of hundreds of bugs firing their weapons as they moved in on the shuttle.

Return fire from the MI already at the shuttle and the shuttle's own weapons tore, huge, bloody gaps in the bug's ranks, but they just kept on coming. More penetrators rattled against Buffy's suit as she came into land, one more bounce and she'd be at the shuttle, but she could see now how she'd never make it. It looked like today the slayer was out of time. Very soon a girl somewhere in human space would be waking up to find she had super-strength.

“God-damn-it!” Buffy cursed as she willed her suit to go faster.

Perhaps if she could get close enough to the shuttle, she could throw Conroy the rest of the way and the guys already on the shuttle's tail ramp would catch him and get him inside. Seeing the last few MI firing at the bugs as they withdrew into the shuttle and the shuttles own plasma cannon blasting out blindingly bright bolts of plasma, she knew that even this faint hope was beyond her reach. Grounding just short of the shuttle, Buffy clutched hold of Conroy in her left arm while drawing her flamer with her right hand. Turning to face the advancing bugs she told herself that they wouldn't take either of them alive.

“COME ON TROOPER!” a loud voice sounded in her ears, “WHAT YA PLAYING AT? SHAG IT! ON THE BOUNCE!”

Turning her body slightly so she could see what was going on, Buffy saw three MI running towards her firing their weapons at the advancing bugs. One of the shuttle's gun turrets swivelled to give them covering fire as the leading MI pulled Conroy from her grasp and another started to drag her towards the shuttle.

Bug bullets pinged off the ramp at it closed and the shuttle started to lift into the air. As soon as the shuttle was airborne, Buffy heard its weapons start to fire at a very increased rate and the sound of thousands of bug bullets hitting the shuttle made her think that they were all going to die. But they didn't, Buffy felt the acceleration as they boosted for orbit and the shuttle's inertial dampeners failed to completely compensate for the violence of the shuttle's power climb.

Opening her face plate, Buffy leaned back against the wall of the shuttle's cargo compartment and for a moment congratulated herself on surviving her first mission as an MI. Turning her head she could see several Navy Corpsmen working on Conroy and a couple of other wounded MI. Just as she was about to crawl over and see how Conroy was an MI appeared in front of her. Kneeling there he opened his face plate to reveal the face of a grizzled veteran.

“Hey you're a girl!” he said in surprise.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Buffy replied tiredly, all the stress and exertion of the last twenty-six hours was beginning to catch up on her; even slayers got tired.

“That guy you brought in,” asked the man with 'Sgt Chatterjee' printed on the front of his suit asked, “he a buddy of yours?”

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “he was just a guy who helped me out when I needed it, his name's PFC Charlie Conroy.”

“Thanks,” Sergeant Chatterjee pulled a pad from a pouch on his belt and made a note, “I'm sorry...?” he looked at Buffy questioningly.

“Private Summers, Buffy Summers,” Buffy replied as she started to get a bad feeling about the look on Chatterjee's face.

“I'm sorry Buffy,” Chatterjee put his hand on Buffy's shoulder, “Conroy didn't make it, the Doc said he musta been hit after you took him outta his suit...”

“Oh no...” Buffy bent forward and placed her head in her hands as the tears started to flow.

“There wasn't anything you could have done,” Chatterjee reassured her, “You where in a crappy position, if you'd not taken him out of his suit you'd never have got him to the shuttle.”

“He was going to take me on a date,” Buffy looked up and tried to sniff back her tears, “I was looking forward to it, y'know?”

“I know,” Chatterjee commiserated, “I know it probably doesn't feel like it now but there'll be other guys and other dates.”

Sitting on the floor of the shuttle's cargo compartment, Buffy felt the nanites crawl across her face in their uncounted thousands as they started to suck up her tears. The nanites loved tears, it was the salt.

0=0=0=0

In less than half an hour the shuttle docked with its parent ship, the Terran Federation Regimental Transport, Argonne Forest and Buffy found herself back in the warm, familiar embrace of the Mobile Infantry. First everyone was disarmed and sent to the arming room where they could remove and store their armour. Of course there was some consternation when Buffy took off her armour and it became apparent that she was a girl. An NCO tried to chivvy her out of the changing area but she snapped and knocked him to the floor, she was really getting pissed at this problem the MI had with female troopers.

Before anything else could happen several other troopers in the room objected to Buffy being removed. They said that as she'd obviously fought with them, she could get herself cleaned up with them. Either these guys had accepted her as one of their own, or they just wanted to shower with a pretty girl, Buffy suspected the latter. Eventually she was left to get cleaned up and dressed after which she and the other troopers were given a meal and allowed to climb into some racks and get some sleep.

Twelve hours later, Buffy woke up, had an enormous breakfast and then went to be debriefed. It was only when she sat down with the Navy intelligence officer that Buffy found she couldn't remember much other than her name, her units title and some confused images of bugs and fire and explosions and... The navy intelligence officer had smiled sympathetically and told her that this sort of reaction wasn't unusual when someone went into combat for the first time. Telling Buffy to report to the medical centre, she left her to start to put herself back together.

The voyage back to Sanctuary took just under two weeks, Klendathu was a long way away and space was a very big place. During her time spent on the Argonne Forest, Buffy had found that the attack on Klendathu had been a disaster. The bugs had somehow found out or suspected that the Terran forces would launch a pre-emptive strike and had been waiting in their underground galleries for the humans to attack. Safe underground the bugs had escaped most of the effects of the naval bombardment and then waited for the MI to land their first wave before springing their trap.

Casualties in both men and ships had been horrific and had torn a tremendous hole in the navy's strength and the MI's manpower. The Terran Federation wouldn't be launching any offensive operations for quite some time. In fact it looked like the armed forces would be hard pressed to stop the bugs taking over and destroying the Federation completely. But that didn't bother Buffy, she was too busy trying to come to grips with the fact that as far as anyone could find out, she was the only Bearcat left alive. Of course there might be one or two alive on other ships but there weren't going to be enough left to make it worth while rebuilding the unit.

Buffy didn't know how to feel about this, she'd not exactly been welcomed in the Bearcats, in fact she'd been shunned by some and looked down on by most everyone else. She'd had no friends in the unit and no one had tried to make pick up on her, it had taken a stranger from another unit to do that. A guy...an MI, who she'd never met before and was now dead, he'd tried to help her and she'd tried to help him right back.

When the battered Terran fleet re-entered the Sanctuary system there was a mass memorial and burial service for the MI and Navy personnel lost in the attack on Klendathu. As Buffy stood at an observation window and watched as dozens of capsules where sent on their last mission towards Sanctuary's sun, Buffy remembered PFC Charlie Conroy and what he had done for her...

“...ashes to ashes, dust to stardust: in the sure and certain knowledge of their resurrection to eternal life amongst the stars...”

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Sanctuary, November 2200.**

When the remnants of the Terran fleet went into orbit around Sanctuary, Buffy found herself, along with hundreds of other MI who'd lost their units, transported down to the surface of the Earth-like planet. The instant she stepped off the shuttle she found herself being taken to a military hospital for 'observation' it appeared that even in the twenty-third century head wounds (however minor they appeared to be) were still considered serious enough to warrant twenty-four hours in a hospital bed.

The next day the doctors gave Buffy a clean bill of health and she was packed off to one of the many 'visiting personnel barracks'. Here she was issued with a complete, new set of uniforms and equipment. The Staff Sergeant in charge of sending replacement personnel to their new units told her that she'd got about three days to recuperate before being sent to her new unit and ship. When Buffy asked the name of the ship and MI unit she was being sent to the Staff Sergeant had shrugged and told her that she'd know when he did. One thing was for sure, the military were desperately short of bodies to fill the gaps left by the bloodbath of Klendathu. Enjoying her three days of leave as best she could and after writing a few letters home, Buffy found she was really impatient to get to her new unit and get on with the war.

0=0=0=0

On the morning of the day Buffy was due to ship out, she woke up early, showered, dressed and went for breakfast before going back to her room and packing up her gear. Packing didn't take long, she only had her uniforms and a few newly acquired personnel items to put in her kit bag. Finally, after making one last check to make certain she'd left nothing behind, she stood in front of the mirror and made sure her black MI beret was on straight. Her khaki uniform was sharply pressed and spotless, she wanted to make a good impression when she got to her new ship. Picking up her kit bag she hefted in her left hand, turned towards the door and walked briskly out of the room and then down to reception where she booked out.

Taking the monorail to Sanctuary Naval Space Port, which was only a thirty minute trip away, Buffy sat at a window seat and watched Espiritu Santo, the capital of Sanctuary, go by. The monorail wasn't particularly fast, she guessed it was only doing fifty miles an hour. There were also three stops before she got to the space port, so she had plenty of time to look out the window at this pleasant Earth-like world. Wondering how long it would be before she came back to Sanctuary, she started to feel a little home sick for Revello Drive. A 'Tour of Duty' on a corvette transport, like the one she'd been posted to, was normally six months. However, what with the war on, all bets were off as to when she'd see somewhere as green and peaceful as Sanctuary again. Of course during her tour, she'd get to go planet-side, but she doubted that she'd be welcomed with open arms when she arrived.

Sanctuary Space Port looked a lot like a big international airport from Buffy's own time. There were long concrete runways and huge terminal buildings plus what looked like launching pads on the far side of the facility. Of starships there were none; starships, were really big and only the smallest were designed to land on a planet. What she did see and hear, as they roared into the air, where ship's shuttles taking cargo and personnel up to the starships in orbit. They were in many different sizes and designs but they all looked sleek and streamlined. 

Over on one of the launch pads was a huge company sized 'Retrieval Shuttle' like one of the ones she'd seen on Klendathu only a lot bigger. Today, Buffy would be lifting off in a much smaller squad retrieval shuttle. Feeling more than a little excited at the prospect of going into space again, she stood up and grabbed her kit bag as the monorail came to a halt at the station inside the terminal building.

From the outside the terminal had looked big, but it'd been dwarfed by the size of some of the shuttles; now she was inside, the terminal looked vast. Walking down the stairs from the monorail station, Buffy saw an area that must have been twice the size of a football field, this open area was all polished marble floors with what looked suspiciously like check-in desks all around its edge. Later Buffy found out this was only one of ten such halls and since the start of the war the navy (who ran the place) were having ten more halls built. 

What made the place look even bigger than it was, was the fact that there were relatively few people moving around. Coming to the foot of the stairs, Buffy paused to look around and get her bearings as she wondered where she was supposed to go. There didn't appear to be any sign-age to tell her what she was expected to do next. As she turned slowly she noticed a giant computer screen with the legend 'Information' above it. Walking over to the computer, Buffy pulled her orders from the pocket on the right leg of her uniform trousers. Instead of paper documents, her orders were stored on a plastic card about the size that a credit card would be 'back home'. Slipping the card into the slot under the screen, she waited for the computer to read her orders. Buffy was rewarded five seconds later by the computer telling her to go to 'Gate 16', it even printed out a small, helpful map to tell her where Gate 16 was.

Looking at the map, Buffy felt a little cheated, she'd really been hoping to have to follow a line of coloured lights on the floor or perhaps a little robot or maybe even a flying robot that would lead her to where she wanted to go. But no, all she had was this small paper map, sighing she checked where she was before heading off across the vastness of the hall towards her check-in gate. As she walked across the polished floor of the hall, she noticed people's (and by that she meant other soldiers) eyes snapping towards her. Buffy read the looks she was getting; at first it was all 'cute chick', which she was sort of used to plus it was always nice to know that she could still turn heads. Then as the 'lookers' started to check her out, their eyes inevitably fell on the blood red ribbon of her 'Klendathu Medal' on the left breast of her shirt and the black 'wound star' on her right cuff.

Of the three MI divisions that had jumped onto Klendathu, Buffy had discovered that there had only been enough survivors to make up one full division. The abortive attempt at conquering the Bug home world had been a major wake-up call for the MI and an almost fatal defeat for the Terran Federation. By the time Buffy got to Gate 16 the looks she was getting had changed from; check out the cute chick, to; check out the cute chick who's survived Klendathu. It made Buffy smile, guys would never change...well, not much.

Walking up to the check-in desk, Buffy presented her orders card to the bored looking civilian worker behind the desk. Slipping the card into a hand held reader he confirmed that Buffy was in the right place and that she was in good time to catch her shuttle. Handing back Buffy's card he invited her to walk through the gate and take a seat in the waiting area. Taking her card back from the guy on the desk, Buffy walked through the gate, it was actually a double door but everyone had been calling it a gate, so she did as well. After walking along a short corridor, she came out into a large room with grey industrial strength carpet on the floor and cheap plastic bench seats in a bright, almost eye watering, shade of orange. The only other people in the room was a navy space-hand who stood over by the exit, Buffy nodded a silent greeting to this obvious veteran who nodded back after checking out Buffy's lone medal ribbon.

The other person in the room was a shiny new MI Private who had his gear neatly piled next to his feet. He was sitting at attention with his hands on his knees and staring straight ahead. Dumping her own kit bag on the floor by the exit, Buffy walked over to the private and stood in his line of sight until he noticed her. Looking up at her the young guy's eyes became riveted on to her lone, blood-red, medal ribbon, He sprang to attention and seemed to be considering saluting before Buffy spoke and straightened him out.

“Hi,” Buffy smiled, “I'm Buffy Summers, you going up to the 'H Jones' too?”

“Yes Ma'am!” the private snapped out as Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Don't 'Ma'am' me I'm a private just like you,” Buffy explained, “only I've been an MI a little longer, okay?”

“But...” the private gestured uncertainly at Buffy's ribbon, “...you're...?”

“Oh this little thing?” Buffy shrugged as she pointed modestly to the ribbon, “It's no biggie, I spent most of my time on Klendathu wandering around by myself and getting knocked out. But, I still totally burnt me some bugs,” Buffy smiled, “so, why don't you relax a little and tell me your name.”

“Trained Private, Gunter von Linbeck, Ma'...Buffy,” Gunter visibly relaxed once he'd got that off his chest.

“So, do you like being called Gun or Gunter, Gunter?” Buffy wanted to know, “Because I'm guessing you better get used to be being called 'Gun' or something to do with guns,” she grinned, “'cause I can't see anyone calling you Gunter, at least not more than once.”

“I prefer, Gunter,” Gunter admitted, “but like you say I get called 'Gun' a lot, what about you?”

“Me,” Buffy shrugged, “I'm cool with Buffy, Buffster or Buff, as long as you don't call me short...”

Before either Buffy or Gunter could say anything else the public address system clicked on.

“Last call for the TFCT H Jones,” Buffy couldn't remember a 'first call', “all passengers embarking on the TFCT H Jones report to Gate 16 immediately.”

Once the rather robotic female voice had finished speaking, Buffy heard a piano start to play which faded a little as a woman's voice began to sing a rather sad sounding ballad;

_“Somewhere along the road  
Someone waits for me.  
Beyond these present storms that blow  
Waiting patiently.  
No secrets held in an open heart,  
A spirit that soars over mountains.  
Somewhere along the road  
Someone waits for me.”_

Buffy turned and looked at the navy rating for an explanation.

“That's the H's recall, grunts,” the sailor informed Buffy and Gunter, “ya better learn to love it.”

“Okay, right,” Buffy said quietly as the room jerked into motion.

The waiting room was in fact the cargo compartment of a vehicle that drove them over to where one of the H Jones' shuttles waited out on the taxi way. Once the vehicle had 'docked' with the shuttle the interconnecting doors slid open and Buffy, Gunter and the spacer made their way into the shuttle after showing their 'boarding passes' to the rating who opened the door and checked them all aboard.

The trip up to the H Jones was very disappointing for Buffy, there were no windows so she couldn't see outside and all she could hear was the roar of the thrusters and even that faded once they got out of Sanctuary's atmosphere. There wasn't even any weightlessness as the shuttle had its own gravity, although Buffy did feel slightly lighter than she normally did. After about ten or fifteen minutes the flight ended with a soft 'clunk' that indicated that they'd docked with the 'H Jones'. Unstrapping her safety belt, she stood up and grabbed her kit bag before walking down the passageway between the shuttle's seats. The shuttle was set out very much like an airliner in its present configuration; Gunter and herself had to walk back towards the rear of the craft to the exit.

Stepping through the shuttles' side door, Buffy found herself in a short, white painted metal and plastic corridor, this was the docking tube that connected the starship and the shuttle. Stepping through another door, she found herself in what she guessed was the main airlock. Walking on a little further she stepped through another barn door sized hatch and into the starship proper. Coming to attention, Buffy and Gunter saluted the Terran Federation flag that stood across the corridor from the hatch, next they turned to salute the ship's name plaque. Lowering her hand, Buffy presented her orders to the Lance Corporal on duty at the airlock. The corporal gave Buffy a 'double take' before taking her and Gunter's order cards and slipping them both into his reader.

“Well it looks like you both made it to the right ship,” the Lance commented with more than a little sarcasm, he obviously thought that both Buffy and Gunter were 'Boots'. “I'll get some one to...” it was then the NCO noticed Buffy's medal ribbon and he stumbled over his words a little before quickly recovering, “...erm what was I saying? Yeah, I'll get someone to take you to see the platoon sergeant...oh yeah an' welcome to the 'H'.”

The Lance Corporal turned away and started to talk into a wall mounted communications unit, Buffy guessed that the news that one of the replacements was not only a girl, but a veteran of the Klendathu bloodbath would be around the ship in about ten seconds flat. Sure enough a couple of minutes later a PFC appeared to take the newbies to see the 'Papa Sierra', the PFC was so interested in checking Buffy out that he almost didn't notice Gunter and the Lance Corporal had to remind him to take both the replacement's order cards with him.

0=0=0=0

“What am I going to do with you, Summers?” Career Ship's Sergeant and therefore Platoon Sergeant, Sandy O’Connor asked; he was a man in his late twenties or early thirties with sandy coloured hair and a slight Irish accent.

So far the interview had gone about as you'd expect, Buffy and Gunter had found they'd been assigned to second section, fifth squad, where they'd fill spots left by two MI who'd been seriously injured on the ship's last tour. After Sergeant O'Connor had told them what he expected of them he had sent Gunter away leaving Buffy to face him alone.

“I'm not sure what you mean, Ship's Sergeant,” Buffy replied as she stood to attention in front of O'Connor's desk in his little cabin that also doubled as an office.

“Oh relax, Summers,” O'Connor ran his hand through his hair and sighed heavily as Buffy 'relaxed', “it might have escaped your notice, Summers, but you're a woman and the rest of the MI on this old rust bucket aren't. Now _you_ might not think it's such a big deal, but some 'round here will and I don't want any trouble in my platoon, Mr Metcalfe won't like it. I'll have to find you a birth up in 'Lady's Country'.”

“Do you have to Sergeant?” Buffy asked her words forestalling O'Connor's move towards the intercom.

“What do you mean?” the Irishman wanted to know.

“On my last ship I was put in 'Ladies Country' and I never got a chance to bond with my team mates,” Buffy explained, “that's why a guy from another unit made pick-up on me and not one of my mates.”

“Hmmm,” O'Connor looked at Buffy from under his sandy coloured eyebrows as he rubbed his chin, “So you're asking me to put you in with the rest of your squad?”

“Yes Ship's Sergeant,” Buffy swallowed hard, “I'm sure I can make it work...”

“I expect _you_ could,” O'Connor eyed Buffy's medal ribbon, “I expect someone who survived that fiasco on Klendathu can make anything work out...” O'Connor paused for a long second before asking, “...was it as bad as people say? We were out in another sector doing nuisance raids so we didn't get to see or hear much of what happened.”

“Look, Sergeant...” Buffy began only to be interrupted by O'Connor.

“Oh stop being so formal, Summers, you rate calling me 'Sarge'.”

“Okay,” Buffy shrugged, “Sarge, I was out cold for some of it and totally lost for most of it, but what I did see looked pretty bad,” Buffy had studied the battle she'd taken part in and by any standards it had been an unmitigated disaster, “I saw a lot of guys down. But I burnt a lot of Bugs to make up for it and I tried to make pick-up on a guy, but that didn't work out so well...”

“Don't beat yourself up about it Summers,” O'Connor advised her, “at least you tried...” he paused for a moment before speaking again, “...I get the feeling that you can handle just about anything, I'm just a little worried that the 'guys' won't be able to handle you,” O'Connor gave Buffy a mischievous grin, “lets get Sergeant Perry and Corporal Parsons up here, we'll see what they think!”

0=0=0=0

**Historical Note.**  
The Terran Federation Corvette Transport, H Jones was named for, Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jones, VC, OBE, (14 May 1940 – 28 May 1982), also known as 'H Jones'. He was a British army officer and a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was awarded the VC after being killed in action during the Battle of Goose Green while commanding, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment during the Falklands War. During an attack against entrenched Argentinian positions, with his unit pinned down by heavy machine gun and rifle fire, he led a charge against the nearest enemy positions. Although he was killed during the attack the Argentinian unit surrendered shortly afterwards. 

Highlight and right click to follow the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iONEa2XKmDY

I prefer this version of the song as its a little faster than the original sung by Maddy Prior. Also any woman who can wear heels like that at a major televised event and not trip over deserves our respect!


	6. Chapter 6

6.

As it turned out Sergeant Perry, Buffy's new Section Sergeant and Corporal Parsons, her new squad leader, were less than delighted to find out that one of their replacements was; 'A' a female and 'B' wanted to bunk down in the squad bay and live with the other guys in the squad. At this juncture O'Connor pointed out that this was the 'new' Mobile Infantry and that they're be more female replacements coming along soon enough and they'd better learn to live with it.

“Okay, Boot,” Corporal Parsons sighed as he looked down at Buffy; they were standing in the corridor outside the platoon sergeant's cabin-office, “what do I do with you?”

“First,” Buffy took a deep breath, “I'm not a 'Boot', Klendathu, remember?” Buffy gestured to the ribbon on her blouse, “Second the name's Summers or Buffy or Buffster or Buff or any play on the name Buffy that anyone can come up with, but its never 'Half-pint' or 'Shorty' or 'Short-ass' or...”

“Hey you've got some attitude there Private,” Corporal Parsons interrupted Buffy's minor rant.

“Attitude?” Buffy asked with a short bark of laughter, “You try being a five-foot-two blonde woman in the MI, you'll totally need plenty of attitude.”

“Okay, I get it,” Parsons chuckled, he was already starting to like this newbie, “'Don't step on me', right?”

“Right,” Buffy agreed, unaware that she'd just acquired her new nickname.

“Right,” Parsons gave another low chuckle, “you better come with me and I'll take you to the squad bay and introduce you to the guys.”

Buffy picked up her kit bag and followed her squad leader through the ship towards her new home. In the MI part of the ship the only navy personnel you saw were ones doing maintenance. The MI and the Navy tried to keep to their respective parts of the ship as much as possible. It wasn't that there was any 'bad feeling' between the two services, it just caused less friction if the two groups kept themselves to themselves. The Navy tended to look on the MI as a sort of 'land torpedo' to be launched at specific targets that couldn't be destroyed by other means. One the other hand the MI looked on the Navy as a glorified transport company who's only job was to get them to where they wanted to go. The MI were also convinced that the navy slept in there uniforms while the Navy was equally convinced that the MI didn't know what a shower was for.

“I'm assigning you as squad scout,” Parsons informed Buffy as they came to a halt outside fifth squad's quarters, “we'll fit you to your suit tomorrow after you've met with the Lieutenant, in the mean time we'll get you squared away.”

Ducking slightly to get through a hatch, Parsons led Buffy into the squad bay. The area occupied by fifth squad was about the size of a cargo container. When you came through the hatch there was a small seating area before you turned ninety degrees to get to the sleeping area. The sleeping area consisted of two groups of four bunks separated by eight small lockers, four on either side of the bay. Right at the far end of bay was a small compartment containing a couple of 'freshers' so you didn't have to make your way to the main washroom if you needed to pee in the middle of the night.

“OKAY LISTEN UP!” Corporal Parsons' voice cut through the muted chatter in the bay like a hot knife through butter, “This is our other replacement,” Parsons gestured to where Buffy stood a little behind him and to his right, “Private Buffy Summers, also known as Snake...”

“Snake?” Buffy muttered unsure where this nickname had come from.

“Snake?” Chorused her new squad mates equally surprised by her nomenclature.

“Okay Summers,” Parsons pointed to a spare rack in the first group of bunks just down from the seating area, it was a bottom bunk signifying her lowly position in the squad's pecking order, “that's your rack.” Parsons looked up at the rest of the squad, “okay you wasters, if you need me I'll be in the suit maintenance bay.”

With these last words, Parsons turned on his heel and headed out of the hatch leaving Buffy to face her new 'roomies'. With a heavy sigh she walked over to her bunk and heaved her kit bag onto the mattress, turning back to face the room she saw four unfriendly sets of eyes staring down at her. However, over on the bunk diagonally opposite hers she saw Gunter, he actually looked pleased to see her, she smiled at him before drawing herself up to her full five-foot-two and confronting the other guys in the room.

“What?” Buffy demanded petulantly of the faces turned in her direction, “You swinging dicks never seen a female MI before?”

“Not one so short an' ugly as you,” replied a voice from a trooper who's shoulders seemed to fill the gap between the bunks on either side of the bay and who's head almost brushed the ceiling.

“There's always one,” Buffy sighed tiredly, “Okay big boy,” Buffy took a couple of steps towards the massive trooper and stared up his nose, “what's your name? I'll like need it so I can put it on the 'Get Well Soon' card I'll be sending you when you're recovering in sick bay.”

“You what?” the big guy looked down at Buffy as steam began to come out of his ears and his face rapidly turned red.

“Okay!” another guy pushed his way to the front of the crowd and positioned himself between Buffy and her prospective sparing partner; he too looked down at Buffy, “I'm Lance Corporal Steiner, I'm your team leader and I'm also the guy that's gonna make sure there's no blood spilt in the squad bay,” Steiner gave Buffy and the big guy a warning look before turning to look at Buffy again, “You wanna fight this big asshole?” he asked, “I mean you could just shake hands and forget it.”

“No,” Buffy shook her head slowly, “sorry Corporal, but he called me short and ugly I can't let that go.”

“Okay,” Steiner was doing his best to head off any violence, “I understand that,” he turned to look at the big guy, “Hey, Cox...”

“Cox!?” Buffy sniggered.

“...look you've got to admit, she might be short but she ain't ugly.”

“Will be by the time I've finished with her,” Cox growled back.

“Okay,” Steiner shook his head in despair, “if you two insist on knocking you're heads together, we'll do it all official in the gym after dinner tonight...” Steiner gave both Buffy and Cox a warning look, “...until then you two steer clear of each other, okay?”

“Okay,” Buffy smiled insolently up at Cox.

“Okay,” Cox rumbled before turning his back on Buffy and climbing back up onto his rack.

“Great!” Buffy smiled to herself as she too went back to her bunk, “Haven't been on the ship a day yet and I'm already in a fight, this is _so_ totally like high school!”

Emptying out her kit bag, Buffy started to stow her kit away, not only did she have one of the lockers there were also drawers under her bunk so there was in fact quite a lot of room to stow her gear in. The description of 'Bunks' didn't really do the beds credit. True they were stacked up on top of each other but it wasn't like you were looking up at the springs of the bunk above you when you were lying in your 'rack'. As has been noted each bunk had drawers under it. There was also a computer screen that dropped down so that when you were lying in your rack you could read or dictate letters home, watch entertainment videos or study.

Along with a light each bunk had a small safe, where a trooper could keep his or her most private and personal things, plus and from Buffy's point of view, best of all, there was a privacy shield. With a click of a switch, whoever was in the bunk could shut out the outside universe. The shield was opaque and completely blocked out sound and any light from the outside world. A trooper could lie in her bunk fast asleep while her buddies were outside having the most raucous party in the galaxy and she'd never notice.

“Hi I'm Steve Windrush, call me Windy,” Steve held out his hand to Buffy and was surprised at how firm her handshake was, “are you really planning on fighting Cox?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded as she folded her clothes away into a drawer.

“You did notice how big he is, right?”

“Totally,” again Buffy nodded as she took off her blouse and hung it up in her locker.

“Look,” Windrush explained, “Cox is just an asshole, he's also big enough to beat you into a paste, no one's going to think any less of you because you backed down.”

“Ever think it might be him that needs to back down?” Buffy asked as she sat on her bed and removed her boots and trousers.

“Frankly no,” Windrush replied as he did a double take when he found he was now talking to a pretty girl dressed in only her army issue, bra and panties, he stood with his mouth open unsure of what to do or say.

“Washroom?” Buffy asked the stunned trooper.

“Aft and one deck down,” Windrush pointed aft, “its sign posted...”

“Thanks,” Buffy picked up her towel and soap and headed on out of the bay.

Once out in the corridor, Buffy took a deep breath and leant against the corridor bulkhead, she'd never done that since boot camp. Undressing in front of a load of guys was not something she'd planned on doing, but, she knew it had to be done. The sooner people got used to seeing a girl in her underwear, or less, the better because once they were used to it they wouldn't find it in anyway special or unusual. It was like that thing about working in a chocolate factory, eventually you got sick of chocolate. Pushing herself away from the wall, Buffy walked along the corridor until she saw a sign for the washroom pointing down a flight of steep metal steps. Of course the stripping down to her underwear while she'd been talking to Windrush had been easy compared to what she'd planned on doing next.

Arriving at the washroom, Buffy found it was the normal navy style open plan washroom. On one side of the compartment was a row of zero-gee/one gee toilets or 'heads'. MI training was designed to make a trooper comfortable with other peoples and his own bodily functions going on in public. Across the compartment from the heads were a line of wash basins. At the other end of this compartment was an opening leading into the shower room. Buffy could hear water running and men's voices, no weird sonic showers here, these showers used real re-cycled water.

“Okay,” once again Buffy breathed deeply as she walked over to the showers, “you can totally do this...maybe.”

Plucking up her courage, Buffy hung up her towel on one of the hooks provided next to the entrance to the shower, next she took off her bra and panties. Picking up her soap, she stepped through the entrance and walked quietly over to an unused shower head. There were about half a dozen guys in the shower with her all talking loudly and animatedly about some game they'd been playing in the gym. At first they didn't notice Buffy's arrival, but as each trooper noticed her the conversation died out as they all turned to look at her.

“They're called breasts,” Buffy announced when she was sure she'd got everyone's attention, “and that other thing you're all looking at is my vagina,” Buffy looked into the eyes of each of her shower time companions and did her best to look fierce; it must have worked because the troopers looked suitably cowed, “Learn to live with them...I mean do you realise how stupid the male body looks to me?” Buffy gave a half smile, “Look, I won't laugh at yours if you don't laugh at mine, okay?”

0=0=0=0

**Later that day.**

By the time Buffy arrived in the gym for her 'fight' with Cox, various versions of the incident in the washroom had gone around the ship like wildfire. There was quite a crowd when she walked in followed by Windrush and Gunter who'd volunteered to be her seconds. Not only where most of the MI contingent there, but there were a fair few navy files, mostly female, who where there to watch the fun as well.

Something that looked like a hexagonal boxing ring had been set up in the middle of the gym, by the time Buffy and her supporters had arrived, Cox and his seconds were already there as was the Navy CPO who'd volunteered to be the neutral referee. There was a smattering of polite applause as Buffy climbed up into the ring and took off her track suit, everyone was convinced that she'd be spending the next two or three weeks in the sickbay before she was transferred out. Dressed in a t-shirt and short, shorts, Buffy walked up to the referee on bare feet, the ref looked down at her and gave her a pitying look.

“You sure you wanna go through with this?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded, “he called me short and ugly.”

“Okay,” sighed the referee as he glanced over to where the two sickbay attendants waited at the side of the ring; “no biting, gouging out eyes, breaking bones or doing anything that would prevent you from making your next combat drop, okay?”

“Okay,” Buffy agreed.

“Sure thing,” Cox sniggered believing that he was going to win...big time.

“Right, lets have a good clean fight and may the best ma...” the referee stopped himself and glanced towards Buffy, “...let the best person win!”

With that a bell rang and Cox lunged for Buffy to catch her in a bear hug and end the so-called fight in about five seconds flat. Of course by the time Cox had got to where Buffy had been standing she wasn't there anymore; Cox roared with anger as he turned to face her again. Buffy knew she could defeat this guy in about ten seconds, after all he was only human. However, that wouldn't work, Cox would only claim afterwards that she'd been lucky and sucker punched him, nothing would be settled. Buffy also knew she couldn't just beat Cox into the ground, that would cause far too many questions to be asked and maybe some bad feeling directed at her. After all Cox couldn't be _that_ bad, he'd got through his training and no one had seemed particularly scared of him. He was just a guy who liked to throw his weight around, Buffy was betting that once she'd stood up to him he'd back off.

No, Buffy was going to have to make this look good, she was even going to have to let Cox hit her a few times. Yep, she told herself as she moved to where Cox could hit her, this was going to be slow and messy. Feeling herself being picked up and thrown across the ring, Buffy relaxed so that when she landed she wouldn't get hurt. Hitting the floor of the ring with a loud 'thud', she rolled and bounced to her feet, before taking a couple of steps toward Cox. Jumping up she punched him in the face...hard! Any normal person would have broken every bone in their hand, but Buffy wasn't 'normal' she was the slayer so apart from some momentary numbness she was completely unharmed. The sound of her blow made the audience gasp and Cox staggered back until he hit the ropes and bounced off them...right into another punch, this time directed to his stomach.

The fight went on for three, three minute rounds, by the beginning of the third round it was obvious to all but the most hard-line Cox supporters that Buffy had won. Yes she did have a split lip and in the morning she'd have an interesting set of multi-coloured bruises, but the only thing that was keeping Cox on his feet was his stubbornness. The ref tried to stop the fight but Cox wouldn't hear of it. Buffy wasn't a sadist and she really didn't enjoy inflicting pain; okay there'd been a few demons back in the day that she'd enjoyed pummelling into the ground, but Cox wasn't a demon. He was just a guy who didn't know when to give up...he was MI.

Standing back, Buffy waited for Cox to stagger towards her, pulling back her arm she punched him with all the force of a sickly butterfly in the chest. For a moment Cox just stood there swaying slightly in the breeze from the air-con. Slowly he started to fall like a redwood in the forest as he eventually went down and bounced a couple of times as he hit the surface of the ring. For a second or two there was complete silence as everyone tried to come to terms with what they had just seen. The silence was eventually broken when Gunter and Windrush started to clap and cheer and everyone slowly joined in.

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The following morning, when Buffy went to have her interview with Mr Metcalfe her platoon leader, the officer pretended not to notice the bruises on Buffy face and her skinned knuckles. He welcomed her to the platoon and suggested that in future she might take a little more care when she was practising unarmed combat.

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	7. Chapter 7

7.

It was almost five weeks before Christmas when the orders for their first combat mission of the tour came down from Fleet Command. In that time, Buffy (or 'Snake' as most of her comrades now called her) worked under Corporal Andy Galloway, who normally commanded 3rd Squad, in the armoury. Here Buffy serviced; Hand Flamers and Heavy Flamers, a larger more powerful version of the hand flamer. Plasma rifles, the cap troopers basic weapon, Light Assault Guns; these were 25mm projectile weapons that could only be used by a man in armour. They looked like a larger version of a military rifle from her own time; but they were so big and heavy that their recoil would put an unarmoured man in hospital with a smashed shoulder and arm.

Next there were interesting things like; the 'Y' rack, a type of automatic grenade launcher. The Personal Missile Launcher, this was a magazine fed rocket launcher that fired 60mm tactical missiles out to around 10,000 yards and was also nuclear capable. There were other fun things such as: Fire Pills, HE Hand Grenades, Incendiary Grenades and the new Anti-bug Nerve Gas grenades, of which they only had a limited supply at this point in the war.

In those first few weeks aboard the 'H', as Buffy learnt to call the ship, she was also fitted for her suit, a Scout Model, faster and less well armed and armoured than a Marauder suit, but it did have more ECM, better sensors and communications than a normal suit. Buffy grew to love her suit as she took it through tactical simulations (tac-sims) aboard ship or used it outside the ship when it was in normal space for EVA exercises.

A little should be said about the suits worn by Buffy and her friends at this point with particular attention being paid to the problems confronting a slayer wearing powered armour. When called on to put on her armour, Buffy and indeed every other cap trooper, had to first put on a black body suit that covered her entire body leaving only her hands and head exposed. This body suit was the home of the millions of nanites that ate everything, like dead skin and hair, produced by the wearer. They also ate bodily waste preventing the need for expensive plumbing having to be fitted to the suits. They reclaimed water lost by the wearer's body and replaced it into the suit's drinking water system, it was in fact a wonder of modern bioengineering. On a more personal note Buffy found that if she wore the body suit at least once every couple of weeks, she had no need to shave her legs, underarms or indeed anywhere else.

Once in his or her body suit the soldier had to don their armour. Like most types of armour over the centuries this required help. In the case of the Mobile Infantry this involved stepping into what Buffy could only ever think of as an 'armour putting on machine'. It had an official title but she could never bring herself to use it, or in fact remember it. However, even with the help of the 'APOM' it took about twenty minutes for a trooper to be get into his or her armour. Oddly it only took about thirty seconds to get a trooper out of his armour. In the event of injury, time could often mean the difference between life or death. It was important to get a trooper out of his armour and to sick bay in as little time as possible.

Once Buffy had her armour on this was when she had to start being extra careful not to damage herself or her suit. Very basically the armour conformed to the movements of its wearer by a system of sensors on the inside of the suit. If the wearer moved an arm say, the sensors in the arm would detect the movement and move the suit's arm away from the wearer's arm but with greater force. This was how a human-being could move around in a suit that weighed in excess of two-thousand pounds. The trouble was that the suits were designed to be worn by normal humans and not by short young women who possessed super strength and speed. Although Buffy had 'tweaked' her suit as much as she could she still needed to be careful that she didn't hurt herself or damage her suit.

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When the orders came through for the 'H' to change course for 'Astrogard', life in the MI section of the ship got a lot busier as suits and weapons were prepared for the mission, whatever that mission was going to be. No one, not even Fleet Command, knew if this was just going to be a meet and greet or a reconnaissance in force to a bug held planet.

Astrogard, an Earth-type planet, was a little cooler than Earth and had been settled by pacifist vegans who just wanted to get away from the rest of humanity so they could live their lifestyle of choice in peace. No one in the Federation had any problem with this, people were entitled to live anyway they wished as long as they didn't harm anyone else. For many years the colony had prospered and as it was in a back water area of the galaxy no one had bothered the colonists much. Until the bugs came on the scene.

It now appeared that Astrogard was on the edge of bug controlled space. At this point in the war bug forces were running riot along the border of the Federation. Sometimes they simply raided, other times they landed in great numbers with every intention of conquering Federation held worlds. As a result of this ships like the 'H' and her MI platoon rushed up and down the border like some sort of manic fire brigade trying to stem the advance of a bush fire.

A merchant ship going into orbit around Astrogard on a scheduled trading mission; the colonists mined some rare strategic minerals and sold them in exchange for luxuries and other goods they couldn't manufacture themselves, reported seeing a bug ship in the system. Unable to raise the colony and already spooked by the appearance of the bug ship, the merchie had boosted out of the system and called in the sighting before going into Cherenkov drive and heading for safety. When the 'H' came on station along the frontier, Fleet Command now had a spare ship that they could send to investigate why the colonists on Astrogard weren't talking and why there was a bug ship in the system.

As has already been mentioned, Astrogard was Earth-like but cooler than Earth. This meant it had extensive ice caps at either pole, while the rest of the planet was mostly covered in trees with some wooded plains around the equator. About seventy percent of the surface was covered in water and ice, the landmasses were split into five continents with thousands of lesser islands scattered randomly across the planet's oceans. Gravity was almost exactly the same as Earth's.

The colonists had set up their main city on a large island just off the coast of the largest continent about thirty years previously. In addition to the main city there were now several lesser cities and settlements scattered across the home island. Colonist numbers were uncertain but were known to be in excess of seventy-five thousand, like most colonists the inhabitants of Astrogard went in for large families.

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The 'H' approached Astrogard cautiously scanning the system for signs of the bugs. There were only five planets in the system and no great number of asteroids. No bug ships were sighted, which didn't mean to say they weren't there. A solar system is a big place and a bug ship is relatively small compared to a planet or even a moon. A bug could be hiding on the opposite side of a planet just waiting for an opening so it could flash in and attack before escaping out of the system. As it turned out Captain Rodriguez, commander of the 'H', couldn't find any bugs lurking anywhere in the system so she brought the 'H' into orbit around Astrogard.

At this point Lieutenant Metcalfe had a decision to make, if there was any sign of bugs he'd use capsules to assault the planet, if no bugs showed themselves the platoon would ride down into the atmosphere and jump from shuttles like old style paratroops. The 'H' only carried so many capsules so no one wanted to use them up when it wasn't necessary. As no ground fire rose up to challenge the 'H' and sweeps by drones showed no sign of bugs but did pick up large numbers of what appeared to be colonist life signs it was decided to go in on the shuttles.

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Standing naked in the squad bay with all her squad mates in a similar state of undress, Buffy ripped open the plastic covering of her body suit and shook it out. Since her arrival aboard the 'H' her fellow comrades had grown to accept her and at least gave the impression of not noticing she was a girl. Okay, yes, every now and again she did catch someone's eye drifting towards her in the shower or like now when she was struggling into her body suit. But to be honest she would have been a little disappointed if they didn't. Anyway, as long as no one stared or leered and didn't make it obvious they were looking, she could live with a few looks. After all the guys were only human and in a way it was flattering and it reminded the guys what they were fighting for. Also Buffy wasn't completely innocent of taking a quick look herself, she was, after all, surrounded by young, fit and generally handsome specimens of the male gender and she wasn't a plaster saint, so like the guys she looked but she didn't make it obvious.

Having climbed into her body suit, Buffy sealed it up shivering at the thought of all those millions of bio-machines crawling all over her body. This was something she thought she'd never get used to, but like so many things in her new life she'd learnt to live with it. Once dressed in their body suits, the squad made its way in single file along the ship's corridors to the arming room. Here the platoon got into their armour, a process that took about an hour to get the entire platoon suited up. Once actually in their suits the equipment checks began. First the squad would check each other's suits. Next the squad leader would give everyone the once over. After that the section leader would check everything again and finally the platoon sergeant and Mr Metcalfe would check everything one final time.

Although Buffy understood the need for all this checking, a Mobile Infantryman or woman was a major expense on the Federation treasury, it did take time and Buffy had never been one for overly long preparations. Of course compared to Faith, she was a stickler for planing and preparation, but it took about two hours, sometimes more, to get a platoon ready for a drop.

“Five minutes for the Padre,” Sergeant O'Connor's voice came to Buffy's ears over her comms; the 'Padre' was actually Corporal Harry Smith, Assistant Section Leader of 1st Section.

As she normally did, Buffy stayed in ranks as a dozen or so men dropped out and went over to talk to the Padre. Instead she stood there checking her weapons and feeling extra bulky with the huge parachute strapped on to her back. Noticing the shape of Ship's Sergeant O'Connor's suit loom over her, she watched as he crouched down so he could press his face plate against hers and they could talk privately.

“You alright in there, Buffy?” he asked in a fatherly way, Buffy nodded her head, truth be told she was feeling nervous, jumping out of a shuttle at high altitude seemed like a silly thing to do just so angry bugs could shoot at her. “Remember its just like a drill,” Sergeant O'Connor continued, “do your job, don't get isolated and if it turns into a fight don't buy the farm. The Lieutenant hates having to write those 'deeply regrets' letters.”

“I'll be fine, Sarge,” Buffy tried for a smile, “it can't be any worse than Klendathu, right?”

“Right,” O'Connor agreed with a smile, “good luck to you, Snake.”

“Thanks Sarge,” Buffy replied as O'Connor moved away from her and headed over to where Gunter stood waiting to board the shuttle.

Although Buffy had spent nearly five years of her life fighting the worst hell could throw at her, she'd never really had to wait long before going into battle, not like now. Also it had always been her that had made the plans if there were in fact any need for a plan to me made; after all a vamp jumping out of the dark only needed one plan and that usually involved a sharp piece of wood. Remembering how waiting to attack Glory had preyed on her mind, Buffy smiled, this was just like that. Waiting for the right time to attack, but that hadn't worked out so well had it? Okay, Glory had been defeated but she'd died and found herself here in the future. Turning to start boarding the shuttle, she reminded herself not to jump into any portals no matter how pretty they looked.

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The 'H' carried six shuttles and today Metcalfe's Marauders would be using all of them. Climbing aboard, one squad to a shuttle, Buffy and her squad mates were strapped down by the navy shuttle bay crew. Once everyone was strapped in and the shuttle was airtight, the big hanger doors at the end of the shuttle bay opened and the shuttles followed each other out into the blackness of space. Once again there were no windows for Buffy to see what was happening just the lurch as the shuttle accelerated or decelerated as it manoeuvred away from the 'H' and dropped towards the planet.

The journey became uncomfortable as soon as the shuttle entered atmosphere. The craft was buffeted about as the air around it got thicker and the roar of its engines got louder as the thicker atmosphere transmitted the sound to the passengers inside the ship's cargo bay. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only ten minutes, the signal was given to unbuckle and stand up. Slapping her release button, a large red 'button' by her right hand, Buffy tried to stand up and panicked when she found she couldn't, the mass of the parachute was messing with her balance. A trooper who'd already got to his feet held out his hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Thanks Coxy,” Buffy said over the private 'Squawk-net'; since her little disagreement with PFC Cox he'd been pretty nice to her and didn't appear to be holding a grudge for being beaten.

“Not a problem Snake,” Cox replied using Buffy's nickname before adding, “on the bounce trooper.”

Being the squad's scout Buffy'd be out of the shuttle right behind the squad leader, Corporal Parsons. The idea was to jump from the shuttle as it entered the upper atmosphere and drop like a stone until each trooper got to an altitude of about a thousand feet where they'd open their chutes. Once they got down to about two hundred feet they'd jettison their chutes and land using their jets.

Making her way along the shuttle so as to stand behind Parsons, Buffy saw the ramp at the rear of the shuttle open. Below her lay Astrogard under a layer of swirling white and grey clouds, it looked an awful long way down, Shuffling along so she was tight up behind Parsons, Buffy glanced at the space-suited navy load master who was standing by the open hatch as if he or she wasn't standing next to a drop that would kill them because they weren't wearing either a jet pack or a parachute.

The load master gave a thumbs up signal as the light above his head changed from red to green. Corporal Parsons stepped out into the void and plummeted towards the planet's surface. Following a second later, Buffy screamed in a mixture of fear and excitement as she dropped like a stone towards Astrogard, it was like being on an express elevator to hell!

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	8. Chapter 8

8.

“OW!” Buffy ripped through the top branches of the tree; the drop from the shuttles had gone well, no one had been shot at and there were no signs of bugs. “OUCH!” she cried as she smashed through a branch and bounced off an even thicker one a little lower down.

Everything had gone very well indeed until she'd hit the trees. Her chute had opened automatically at one thousand feet and she'd drifted gently towards the tree tops giving her plenty of time to admire the view. There were trees, lots of trees, from her vantage point hanging under her near invisible parachute, she could see that the trees reached all the way to the mountains to her north and west. To the north east, rising from this ocean of green, rose a great, white stepped pyramid. Even at a range of five miles it looked huge, well, she told herself, it needed to be big as it was the main settlement on Astrogard and it housed in excess of thirty-eight-thousand people.

The morning sun glinted off the white stone of the pyramid while Buffy sank closer and closer to the trees below. The sides of the great structure were terraced and planted with gardens giving its walls a sort of stripped appearance; stone, green, stone, green until the base of the structure was lost amongst all the trees.

“AGH!” Buffy hit another branch which slowed her decent by another few miles an hour but made her feel like she was bouncing around inside her armour like a pea inside a drum.

Her proximity sensors had told her that she was about two hundred feet up, so she'd cut loose her chute. Dropping towards the forest below, she'd fired her jets to bring herself into land amongst the trees. It was only then that she discovered that the trees were in fact at least two hundred feet tall themselves, a lot were more like three or four hundred. The trees looked like Terran pine trees but they weren't. The top most branches were thin and Buffy hardly noticed their passing as she crashed through them on her way towards the surface.

Another fifty feet down, Buffy started to meet thicker branches that broke with loud 'cracks' as she dropped through them. At about one hundred feet she started to meet branches that resisted even two-thousand pounds of slayer, weapons and armour as she started to flip-flop from one branch to another. This, she decided after hitting yet another giant branch, could not go on forever. Curling up into a tight ball she smashed through a couple of lesser branches before she felt her self drop into open air. Uncurling she sat on her jets bringing herself into a hover just a few feet above a massive branch that probably would have killed her had she hit it without braking. Breathing a sign of relief she remembered she was a scout and she that had a job to do.

“Hello all stations,” Buffy called over her comms, “this is Five-Two-Sierra, look out for the trees they're bigger than they look, out!”

Looking around, Buffy saw that she still had about a hundred feet or so before she could land, she also realised that hanging there in mid air was using up her 'go-juice' for no good purpose. Looking down, she picked a path though the branches and eased off on her jets allowing herself to fly rather than fall to the forest floor. Dropping through the canopy, she discovered that the branches stopped about fifty feet up allowing her to fly safely to the bare forest floor. Taking her plasma rifle off her back, she crouched next to a massive tree trunk and looked through the semi-darkness that prevailed under the canopy of leaves above her. There was little undergrowth because the trees effectively cut out almost all sunlight. The forest floor was covered in a layer of leaf litter that was probably several feet thick and shifted slightly under her every time she moved.

Satisfied that there was no danger close by, Buffy moved her position about one hundred yards to the north where she took cover in a huge hole made by the massive roots of a fallen tree. Here she checked on the position of her squad mates on her HUD. Watching the little lights that represented the seven other members of her squad, Buffy noted that her closest companion was Steiner who was about a thousand yards to her south. The rest of the squad were spread out at one thousand yard intervals on either side of Steiner. From the way everyone's beacon was a steady green colour, she knew that they'd all landed safely and were uninjured. 

“Wider,” Buffy ordered the HUD and the little green lights indicating her squad grew smaller and she could see the squads either side of her own, “Wider,” she ordered again and the lights grew smaller still until they all but faded together to form little green lines as she saw the platoon's entire deployment.

The plan was simple, as all the best plans were. The platoon had landed in a hexagonal formation around the pyramid. At a signal they would start leapfrogging towards the structure, odds and evens with the scouts out in front. Once they were near enough to see the base of the pyramid they'd find an access point and go inside. What they did after that depended on what they found.

Hearing a soft 'ding' in her left ear, Buffy knew it was time to get moving, taking a bearing on the pyramid, she picked a path between the massive tree trunks and shot off flying nape of earth across the forest floor. Not wishing to end up like one of those guys on the flying bikes in that Star Wars movie she kept her speed down and her eyes open. Coming in to land behind another big tree, she checked on her surroundings before checking on the location of her squad. Finding she was only six hundred yards ahead of the nearest trooper, she jumped into the air again and flew off between the trees once more.

So far the largest creature she'd seen was a feathered lizard, a little like the pictures of prehistoric flying dinosaurs she'd seen in books. Although the creature had a wicked set of teeth and claws it was only about the size of a lemur and posed no threat to an armoured trooper. However, she also detected, but never saw, smaller animals scuttling around in the leaf litter at her feet. These were probably what the flying lizard ate, these were the usual insect equivalents and once or twice Buffy thought she detected a larger animal moving through the branches about a hundred feet above her head. Making a quick report of what she'd seen (it wouldn't do for a jumpy trooper to blast some innocent animal to super heated vapour and give away their position) she flew on again always heading north towards the pyramid.

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The forest stopped about fifteen-hundred yards from the base of the pyramid, up this close the structure looked even more spectacular than it had from five miles away. It rose like a mountain to block out the sky and from the angle Buffy was looking at it, it looked even more like some strange forest covered mountain than it did a work of man. The area between the forest edge and the base of the pyramid was planted with vegetable gardens and interspersed with long low greenhouse-like structures. Looking carefully and dialling up the magnification on her HUD, Buffy could see robots moving slowly up and down the lines of what had to be crops in the greenhouses.

“Hello all Sierra call signs, this is Nine-Actual,” the L-t's voice came to Buffy's ears through her ear bugs, “I want you to advance to the base of the pyramid and find any access points, over.”

“Five-Two-Sierra, wilco, out,” Buffy replied once the call signs ahead of her had all replied.

Waiting a few seconds after Six-Two-Sierra had acknowledged the Lieutenant's order, Buffy slipped from the forest edge and flew, her boots only inches above the ground, towards the pyramid. Zigzagging between the gardens and greenhouses, she kept her plasma rifle at the ready as she scanned for danger and looked for a way into the pyramid. It was very important that a scout could multi-task; as women were supposed to be so much better at multitasking than men, Buffy wondered why there weren't more female scouts in the MI. Coming up with an answer she didn't really like (sexism), she pushed these thoughts aside and got on with her job.

Listening in to the reports coming in from the other scouts, Buffy found that so far no one had found a way in. Smiling, she thought that they'd all look a pretty silly if after coming all this way they couldn't find the front door. However, it wasn't as if there weren't any doors, to Buffy's eyes it looked as if there were lots of doors, but they all had heavy blast shutters firmly in place over them. No doubt they could blast their way in, but that would give anyone or anything inside the pyramid who wished the MI ill plenty of time to prepare a welcome. Coming around the end of a large greenhouse less than two hundred yards from the base of the pyramid, she stopped in her tracks and looked carefully towards a large square portal in the side of the structure.

“Hello Nine-Actual this is Five-Two-Sierra,” Buffy called her voice barely above a whisper, why she was whispering, she didn't know, no one could hear her outside her suit, “I've got an opening in the middle of the south side, it looks like a loading bay or something.”

“Good work Five-Two-Sierra,” the Lieutenant replied, “let me have a look.”

“Camera,” Buffy ordered her helmet as she lined herself up on the door; the tiny TV camera on the side of her helmet started to send Lieutenant Metcalfe pictures of the loading bay.

“That's just what we need Five-Two-Sierra, well done,” Lieutenant Metcalfe congratulated her before starting to give orders. “Five-Two-Sierra I want you to go into the building and look around, if you meet resistance get out of there as fast as you can. Five-One, move the rest of your squad into supporting positions, do not enter the building unless Five-Two-Sierra is in trouble or I give the word. All other call signs side step towards Five's location and take up overwatch positions...”

Buffy listened as the squad and section leaders confirmed that they understood their orders. As she listened she moved closer to the portal on foot, using her jets now would give away her approach to anyone who might be watching from the inside of the building. Keeping low and moving slowly, she thought she'd be almost invisible to any lookouts. Her suit was electronically stealthed, and her camouflage changed to mimic her surroundings as she moved. A sentry would have to be very lucky to spot her by chance.

“Five-One this is Five-Two-Sierra,” Buffy called quietly over her radio, again wondering why she was keeping her voice down, “I'm in position and I'm going inside in five...”

“You be careful in there Snake,” Corporal Parsons' voice came over the squawk-net as Buffy counted down.

On getting to 'one', Buffy burst from cover and entered the building, the sudden change in light levels blinded her for a second but her HUD compensated for the low light of the loading bay and she could soon see clearly again. Scanning the room over the top of her plasma rifle, she confirmed that she was in fact in a loading bay. There were great bails of agricultural produce stacked up against one wall and a couple of forklift-bots standing idly by in the centre of the bay. Ahead of her she could see an office and a large door that looked as if it led further into the building.

“Okay so far,” Buffy reported over the squawk-net, Corporal Parsons would relay her reports to the Lieutenant.

“Stay frosty, Snake,” Parsons replied.

“Right I'm moving further into the building,” Buffy explained, “no sign of the locals, no one's rushing towards me to hang me with garlands of flowers or smother me in kisses.”

“They're probably waitin' further in, so don't shoot them when they jump out and yell 'SURPRISE!', okay?”

“Hey, who do you take me for, Gunter?” Buffy smiled as she remembered the tac-sim where Gunter had flamed a whole bunch of 'happy locals' who'd surprised him, the young guy had had to buy the beer for the entire squad that night.

Moving further into the building, she glanced into the office to see nothing out of the ordinary, no blood, nothing out of place, no half eaten meals or cups of cold coffee.

“Look, I'll be going down a big corridor in a moment, it looks pretty dark down there,” it did indeed look dark; changing her HUD to image intensifier, she scanned the corridor. “No, nothing lurking down there, its about two hundred yards long and there seems to be a light at the far end, its very faint so I can't be sure what it is.”

“Okay, Snake,” Parsons called back, “I'm moving the guys up into the bay, we'll overwatch you from there.”

“Gee thanks,” Buffy replied as she started down the long corridor and further into the building; she was about half way along the tunnel when she saw her first evidence of foul play. “I've got blood!” she called, “No, my mistake, I've got lots of blood, looks like someone or something got pulled apart here...no sign of body parts though.”

“Right,” Parsons voice came clearly over the comms link, “we're moving into the corridor behind you so don't shoot at us by mistake.”

“Hey, its me who should be worried about you trigger happy clowns shooting me,” Buffy joked, “and didn't the L-t say not to go into the building unless I was in trouble?”

“What the L-t doesn't see or hear the L-t won't worry about,” Buffy could hear the smile in Parson's voice, “anyway we've grown used to having you around, if you got killed they'd probably send us a really useless 'Princess' type as your replacement.”

“You say the nicest things, my Corporal,” Buffy replied as she moved further along the corridor.

Pausing to look into what might be a service bay, Buffy found no monsters waiting to jump out at her. It would have been a relief if one did, but she obviously wasn't going to be that lucky today. Very soon she found herself up against a big heavy door that blocked her access to the rest of the complex. In the faint light that came from the emergency exit sign, she saw that the lock had been fused on her side to prevent anyone opening the door.

“Door's locked,” Buffy reported, “it looks like it might have been locked from the outside to stop something getting out,” just for a moment she wondered if the blood she'd found was all that remained of whoever had closed the door, in which case they'd not been successful, “I'm going to blast the lock open...” aiming her plasma rifle at the locking mechanism Buffy called out, “FRIENDLY FIRE!” before starting to reduce the lock to useless slag.

Activating her rifle, Buffy watched as her HUD compensated for the bright flashes made by her weapon. Brilliantly white-hot plasma bolts struck the lock melting it to slag after only two or three hits. Dropping her rifle to be pulled into the side of her suit by its tether, she rushed up to the lock and ripped the melted metal apart. Once the lock was disengaged, she shifted her position grabbed hold of the door and heaving it open. The door stood no change against power armour plus slayer enhanced strength and she soon found herself looking into a huge open area. Walking forward a few yards she stopped again to take another look around.

“Okay, Boss,” Buffy called, “I've got a large area, looks like a market, there stalls an' stuff. No people in evidence.”

“Bodies?” Parsons asked.

“None that I can see,” Buffy walked towards the first line of market stalls, “Looks like everyone just walked away, there's no evidence that there was a fight or anything.”

“Okay, we're right behind you, be care...”

“I know,” Buffy signed, “'be careful', you're worse than my mother.”

Walking deeper into the market hall, Buffy looked at all the fruit and vegetables neatly set out for sale, of course most of the produce had rotted by now. Once again there was nothing out of place, nothing had been knocked over, there were no blood trails, nothing that might explain where everyone had gone.

“I suppose they could have all gone to church or something,” Buffy mused out loud; it was then that her proximity alert started to ping at her urgently, “I've got movement!” she called out as she turned only to see something quick and grey vanish behind a stall piled high with bunches of once brightly coloured flowers which were now turning brown for lack of water.

“Movement?” Parsons called, “Movement where?”

“Erm...” Buffy kept seeing grey shapes dodge between the stalls but every time she turned to face one it had already gone, “movement all around...”

“How many?”

“Lots,” Buffy replied as her proximity alert pinged insistently in her ear.

“Get out of there Snake,” Parsons ordered, “we'll go back in with the whole squad.”

“No I can deal,” Buffy replied as she spun to face another grey shape, this time she was quick enough to see it clearly or maybe the hideous caricature of a human wanted her to see it. “I think I've found the locals,” she announced as her proximity sensor pinged continuously as more of the grey horrors came out from behind or from under stalls to advance slowly towards her.

The things were naked, with grey skin and long sharp looking black claws on their fingers and toes. Their faces were distorted into some horrific, bestial visage with long fangs protruding from their dog like faces. There had to be twenty or thirty of the creatures advancing on her, she could hear their quiet breathing as they got closer and closer.

“Oh boy,” Buffy said quietly as the first creature leapt at her.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

A fight between twenty or thirty unarmoured 'men' and a single MI would be pretty one sided; a fight between the same 'men' and an armoured slayer hardly warranted the term 'fight'. By the time the rest of fifth squad got to Buffy she was surround by piles of dead creatures and was busily shooting down some of the last few survivors of the pack with her plasma rifle.

“What the heck's going on here, Snake?” Corporal Parsons called over the squawk-net as he came to a halt and shot a couple of the man-monsters as they turned to attack the newcomers, “What are these things?”

“I'm not sure,” Buffy replied as the last creature fell to a plasma bolt fired by one of her comrades, “they just sort of came out of the woodwork and attacked me.”

“Okay,” Parsons looked around for more of the creatures, “defensive positions, people.” Buffy and the other troopers moved to take up positions around the market, “Not you Snake, wait here with me...”

Buffy moved away from the bodies and a little closer to Parsons, she could hear him talking to Lt Metcalfe who was still outside the pyramid with the rest of the platoon. Waiting for Parsons to finish his report, Buffy went over to one of the bodies and crouched down to examine it. The creature was well muscled and looked powerful enough to easily overpower a normal human. Looking closely at the monster, Buffy had a feeling she'd seen something like it before. It took her a few seconds to recall the information, but when she did the memory made her frown.

The dead creature looked almost exactly like a Hellhound, However, this monster had none of the lank hair that covered the bodies of the normal Hellhounds she'd seen and fought. Another odd thing was that these creatures had moved and attacked while standing up on two legs just like a human would. Rolling the 'Hellhound' over onto its back Buffy saw that it was indeed completely hairless and that this creature was a female. As she remembered it the hellhounds she'd fought had appeared pretty asexual. These memories made her frown even harder, she was getting a bad feeling about this; she really wished Giles was there to tell her what was going on. Hearing armoured footsteps behind her, she turned slightly to see Parsons walk over and join her by the body.

“The L-t says, 'good work',” Parsons informed her, “he's coming into the complex with the rest of second section in a couple of minutes to take your report personally and review your gun-camera footage...”

The plasma rifles the MI used had gun cameras fitted to them so that combat footage could be studied for after action reports. Corporal Parsons crouched down next to Buffy and poked the Hellhound with an armoured finger.

“What are these things,” Parsons asked not really expecting Buffy to supply him with an answer, “and where are the locals?”

“Erm...” Buffy hesitated before saying what she was thinking, “...I think these _are_ the locals.”

“What?” Parsons turned his body to look at Buffy directly, “How?”

“Hey!” Buffy laughed bitterly as she noticed something new about the body, “Don't ask me, I'm just a...” Buffy almost said 'slayer' but stopped herself just in time, “...grunt, but when was the last time you saw alien monsters with body art?”

Pointing, Buffy drew Parsons' attention to the small and tasteful tattoo of the 'Eye of Ra' on the hellhound's right wrist.

“Crap!” Parsons replied with feeling.

“If I was the sorta girl who made wild guesses I'd say these people got infected by something and turned into these,” Buffy explained as she got to her feet.

Before Buffy could say anything more, Lt Metcalfe and the rest of second section arrived in the market area. As the troopers fanned out to cover the massive hall, Lt Metcalfe came over to where Buffy and Parsons were standing and took their reports. Looking at Buffy's gun camera footage the officer frowned behind his faceplate before giving Buffy an apprising look.

“Good work there Summers,” he began, “Corporal Parsons says you've got a theory about these...” he gestured at the bodies, “...things.”

Buffy explained what she thought and showed her officer the tattoo on the female Hellhound's wrist. Lt Metcalfe crouched down to get a better look himself, before going over and looking at the bodies of several more Hellhounds. He stepped away from the group and Buffy realised he was talking to the 'H' up in orbit, after a moment or two he turned back to Buffy.

“Jolly good show, Summers and I'm afraid you're right.”

“Right, Sir?” Buffy asked, she had a bad feeling about what the officer was going to say next.

“These things,” Metcalfe gestured to the bodies once more, “are the colonists...each colonist had an 'Eye of Ra' tattooed on his or her right wrist, it was sort of an identifying mark for the cult they followed. Of course we can't be certain until the medical team gets down here from the 'H', but it looks like these things _are_ the colonists.”

“What do we do now, Sir?” Sergeant Perry, second section's sergeant asked from a few yards away, he'd been monitoring the conversation between Buffy and Metcalfe.

“To be honest, Sergeant Perry,” Metcalfe walked over to stand near Perry, “I'd like to get out of here and nuke this place until its just a big, radio active hole in the ground, but its never that simple.”

“When is it ever, L-t?” Perry laughed humourlessly.

“Right,” Metcalfe signed tiredly, “there may be survivors so we better make a search and try and find them. Also we need to try and find evidence of what happened here, this could all be an example of Bug bio-warfare.”

“May I remind the L-t,” Sergeant Perry began slowly, “that there's thirty-thousand plus people in here that might have turned into...” Perry gestured at the Hellhounds, “...those things. Also this is a huge place and there's less than thirty of us to search it.”

“Look on the bright side, Sergeant,” Lt Metcalfe joked, “that means we're only outnumbered by a thousand to one!,” his voice became more serious as he continued to speak, “Look, we'll do the best we can, by the numbers and on the bounce. Weapons free and lets get moving...” he turned to see Buffy standing a few yards away, “...Summers!” he called, “You've done well so far,” he looked upwards towards the walkways that criss-crossed the void high above the market, “I want you to try and find the complex control room, its somewhere near the apex of the building...unfortunately we don't have reliable plans for this place so you'll have to work it out for yourself.”

“Sir?” Buffy replied uncertainly at the idea of being sent out on a mission alone; hunting vampires by herself was one thing; searching through a building that might contain thirty-thousand Hellhound look-a-likes was something else entirely. 

“I know,” Lt Metcalfe commiserated, “I don't like sending a lone trooper out on their own but like the Sergeant says we're pretty thin on the ground here. Look you're fast and well armed and these things aren't much of a threat to a man...sorry, a woman in armour. I get the feeling that you're the kind of woman that likes to get things done, so I want you to find colony control, download any records you might find about what happened here, then get out and head for the retrieval shuttle, no sightseeing, understand?”

“Right, Sir,” Buffy nodded, “no sightseeing.”

“And Summers,” Metcalfe spoke again, “why are you still a Private?”

Buffy tried to shrug, but the gesture was lost under her armour, “Don't know, Sir.”

“We'll see about that after we get back to the 'H',” Metcalfe replied, “you've got your mission orders trooper, on the bounce!”

“Sir! Yes Sir!” Buffy replied just before she bent her knees, jumped and shot upwards on her jets.

0=0=0=0

As Buffy moved further up the pyramid, she began to find more and more evidence of what had overtaken the colony. Finding rooms and open areas smashed to pieces, she started to piece together what had probably happened. First a few people had, for want of a better word, been infected. They'd then spread out, probably from a central point and started to bite and infect other people spreading the disease or whatever it was through out the colony. It all looked as if it had happened pretty fast, but even so there would normally be some survivors hold up somewhere.

As Buffy was walking through what appeared to be a shopping mall, looking for an open area so she could jump and miss out a few floors, she was distracted by a display of boots and shoes in a shop window. Walking over, she gazed longingly at the footwear almost salivating at all the boot and shoe possibilities when her proximity alert pinged softly in her ear.

“What now?” Buffy muttered, angry at having her footwear, fetish, daydreams interrupted; turning she looked back the way she'd come to see wall to wall grey monsters, “AAAGH!” she screamed forgetting for a moment that she was a heavily armed and armoured Mobile Infantry-woman.

Although her scream of fright was totally undetectable from outside her suit, it seemed to act as a signal for the 'colonists' to charge. Back peddling as fast as she could, Buffy snatched the hand flamer from off her right hip and started to burn down the first couple of ranks of snarling, grey horrors. Unconcerned by their loses the colonists-from-hell charged onwards clambering over the burnt and smouldering corpses of there comrades in their eagerness to get at her.

Incinerating more colonists with her flamer, Buffy dispensed a couple of handfuls of fire pills into her left hand and threw them onto the floor in front of the charging monsters. The fire pills burst into intensely hot, white flame as they hit the floor, immolating more of the misshapen horrors as they attempted to get at her.

Burning the survivors as they struggled through the flames, Buffy threw another handful of fire pills onto the floor before she turned, jumped and flew down the shopping concourse at high speed. Coming out into a large plaza about half the size of a football field and maybe six stories high, she found herself confronted by a new horde of slavering monsters all eager to peel her armour off and rip her soft, hot, body to shreds. Coming to a halt, Buffy wished she had some heavier weapons; a heavy flamer would be nice, she told herself. But she was a scout and as such she was armed with only a hand flamer, plasma rifle, half a dozen HE grenades and a fire pill dispenser. Okay, compared to soldiers from the twentieth century she was incredibly heavily armed. But there was still no way she could kill all these things before they got to her and if that happened... Was she really that sure they wouldn't be able to damage her suit? The things were strong and there were a heck of a lot of them.

Jumping hard, Buffy flew up into the air leaving several handfuls of fire pills behind her along with a couple of hand grenades. Feeling the blast of the grenades pressing against her suit, she concentrated on keeping herself on course before she glanced down again to see what had happened. The grenades had blown great gaps in the ranks of the hell-colonists. But these bloody holes were soon filled up as more monsters pressed into the plaza. Burning colonists staggered around spreading the white hot flame of the fire pills to their neighbours. But there were far too many of the creatures for the fire to have any lasting effect. Apart from building the pyramid to make it feel light and airy inside, the designers had been careful to use only fire proof or fire retardant materials in its construction.

Now almost at the top of the plaza area, Buffy started to look for somewhere to land. Staring through the windows and glass walls that surrounded the plaza, she could see nothing but hell-colonists clawing at the glass as they tried to get to her, their naked grey bodies pressed against the unforgiving glass. Wondering why the glass didn't just break, Buffy had an idea. Dropping her flamer, she let it be retrieved by its tether as she took the plasma rifle off her back and fired at the row of windows closest to her. An avalanche of grey bodies spilled from the offices and apartments, some even trying to grab at her as they fell to their deaths on the plaza floor six levels below.

Altering the angle of her body, Buffy flew in through one of the smashed and melted windows. Using her rifle on continuous fire, she cut down scores of grey monsters only stopping when her rifle was in danger of overheating. Luckily, at this point, she saw an escape route before the colonists had a chance to overwhelm her. Jumping off again, she flew across what looked like an indoor gym and towards an exit on the other side of the room. Getting to the door before she was attacked again, she used her rifle and flamer to cut down more of her attackers. Hitting the door with an armoured shoulder, she smashed her way through into the service corridor on the other side. Luckily this passageway was clear of colonists, so she didn't have to stop and fight.

Saving her go-juice, Buffy cut her jets and ran along the corridor to the door at the far end. Hardly slowing she hit the door at a run and smashed it to splinters. Suddenly finding herself out in the open air, she tried to stop but momentum defeated even her and she crashed through the metal railings around the edge of the balcony she'd burst out on to. Leaving the bent and twisted metal behind her, arms flailing in a futile bid to stop herself from falling, she fell through the air towards a small terraced park fifty feet below. Turning like a cat in mid air, she only just managed to get herself facing the right way up before she hit the ground. Her jets strained to stop her from crashing as they brought her to a hover about a foot above the neatly tended lawn.

Setting down gently on the grass, Buffy looked up to see a few colonists follow her path out of the door to plummet to the ground only yards from her. About a dozen bodies fell to the park and died hitting the ground with wet sounding thuds. Standing there trying to decide what to do next, she absently burnt down a lone hell-colonist who'd burst out of the bushes and charged at her. Telling herself she couldn't stay there all day, she looked for a way of completing her mission. As she was looking for an entry point back into the building, she stopped and thought for a moment.

“Stupid slayer,” Buffy told herself; the answer to how to get to the apex of the pyramid was staring her right in the face.

Instead of trying to fight her way up through the building, a task that would take more weapons and ammunition than she carried, why not just fly up the side of the pyramid and smash her way back in once she got to the top? Checking her 'go-juice' state Buffy found that she was still about sixty-five percent full. Most of her expenditure so far was due to all the hovering she'd been doing; sitting on your jets ate up fuel fast. However a straight flight up the side of the pyramid would hardly cost her any fuel at all.

0=0=0=0

It took Buffy five minutes to fly between the parks and gardens built into the side of the pyramid and get to the top. As she flew up the side of the mountain sized building, she couldn't help feeling sad, the pyramid looked like a nice place to live and she started to feel very angry about whoever or whatever had caused all this horror to happen.

Stopping about three-hundred-and fifty feet down from the summit, Buffy found that one floor was completely surrounded by windows. Blasting out on section of glass, she came into land. Climbing into the building, she realised that she'd reached her target. There were groups of computer screens and work stations set in little clusters around an open plan office. In the centre of the area she saw a raised platform with a semi-circular control panel in front of a big chair; this was obviously where the colony's 'big cheese' sat and controlled the world! Buffy smirked at people's delusions of grandeur as she walked over to examine the master control panel.

Studying the screens that still held information and shots from cameras around the complex, Buffy saw hundreds, possibly thousands of the grey terrors just standing in corridors, offices and plazas. Occasionally she'd see them burst into life as an MI entered a room, only to be quickly burnt or gunned down as the soldier backed out and made for safety.

With a heavy heart, Buffy took a data crystal from her belt and plugged it into a data port on the side of the control panel. Taping out some commands on a nearby keyboard, she downloaded the colony's records for the last eighteen months onto the data crystal. Once she was finished, she disconnected the crystal and placed it safely back into its little pouch on her belt. Turning away from the panel she was just about to take a flying leap out of the smashed window when she caught sight of something interesting out of the corner of her eye.

Checking that her helmet cam was recording, Buffy turned and walked a few yards deeper into the control room. There on the floor she saw it, the magic symbols drawn on the carpet, the archain artefacts set out around the pentagram, the great tome of magic lying discarded on the floor its pages flicking over in the breeze from the broken window.

“So,” Buffy told herself, “magic...why don't people learn?” 

Not satisfied with what was as close to paradise as you could get without dying, some idiot had obviously thought they could 'improve' things, or, more likely, bend society to his or her will. As usual, whoever, had screwed up big time. From the total lack of insane magic users sitting laughing maniacally at her (Buffy hated it when things and people laughed maniacally at her) she guessed that they'd probably been killed by one of their own creations.

Taking her hand flamer, Buffy incinerated the magic items; there'd be no evidence of magic left by the time she'd finished, as long as she remembered to 'forget' to download this part of her mission tape. After satisfying herself that everything had gone up in smoke, she turned and started to run towards the broken window. Taking a flying leap she sailed through the smashed glass and out into the clean, fresh air of Astrogard. As she dropped through the air she kicked in her jets and flew down to find her buddies.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

When the Marauders left Astrogard and got back to the 'H' they discovered that there'd been no survivors of the mysterious 'plague' that had caused the colonists to 'mutate'. The initial study by the H's medical department was that there was some unknown virus on Astrogard. Once a few of the colonist had become infected the disease had swept like wild fire through the main colony. It had probably been transferred to the outlying settlements by people fleeing the pyramid. Only Buffy knew the truth and she kept her mouth firmly closed, after all who'd believe her and anyway there was no evidence. After all who'd believe that the colony had been destroyed because some idiot had been dabbling in the black arts? No, she told herself, it was best that everyone thought that there was some dangerous virus in the air on Astrogard and that the planet would be quarantined forever.

Before the H left orbit, Captain Rodriguez subjected the pyramid and all the outlying settlements to kinetic bombardment from orbit. All the settlements were reduced to smoking craters and it was generally believed that all of the colonists where now dead. Some had probably escaped into the forests before destruction rained from the sky. But, no one was suggesting that anyone should go back down to the planet and check, after all there were more important things to do, like killing Bugs.

The one good thing to come out of the Astrogard mission was that Private B A Summers (aka Snake) was promoted to Private First Class.

0=0=0=0

Eventually the H's six month tour of duty (which had turned into an eight month tour due to Bug attacks) along the frontier came to an end. There had been casualties and the H had run through her supply of capsules and needed replacements. The Marauders had raided several Bug worlds mainly with the simple objective of killing bugs, or, learning new ways of killing bugs and generally keeping the Bug High Command in the dark about what the Terran forces were doing.

The truth was that the Federation was fighting for its life. The Army and the Navy were slowly recovering from the disaster that had been Klendathu. Replacements were coming out of Earth and the Federation's other high population industrial planets, but these were doing little more than replacing past casualties. The new armies and fleets that would be needed to destroy the Bugs hadn't even begun to be built yet.

However things weren't all bad, the bugs appeared to have exhausted themselves for the time being and were consolidating the gains they'd made so far. The pessimists amongst the Marauders where of the opinion that the bugs were simply resting while they gathered unstoppable numbers before pushing humanity clear out of the galaxy. 

Buffy didn't really believe this, from what she'd seen and read, Terran warships had a major edge in combat and while the bug warriors were tough and very good at what they did, they were relatively easy to kill. However, there were an awful lot of bugs. If the MI killed bugs at a rate of a thousand for every MI killed that was still a victory for the bugs. While it took from nine months to a year to turn a human civilian into an MI, a bug warrior came out of its egg-sack ready to fight.

0=0=0=0

With the end of the H's tour came R&R K7 was a planetoid orbiting a red dwarf sun which had long ago vaporized all its inner planets and scorched clean the surface of all its outer planets before collapsing in on itself hundreds of millions of years ago. The human settlement on K7 had started life as a mining colony, indeed it still was a mining facility but now most of the minerals it mined went to the Navy repair and supply base that had been built next to the planetoids one city, El Dorado. 

The best thing about K7 (as far as your average MI was concerned) was that it had extensive liberty facilities. Not only were there liberty barracks available on the base but the town of El Dorado supplied all sorts of entertainment that a lonely navy spacer or MI could think of, plus a few more that they'd probably never even dreamed about. The repair, refit and re-supply of the 'H' would take two weeks and the base commander was under orders to make sure that the crews of any visiting ships enjoyed everything El Dorado had to offer. After a combat tour people needed to wind down or risk combat stress.

It was with this in mind that Buffy and the rest of Fifth Squad were walking down a street in one of the more raucous areas of El Dorado looking for a good bar to celebrate in. The reason for these celebrations, if any were really needed, was that Corporal Parsons had been promoted to Sergeant and would be replacing Sergeant Dale who'd bought the farm, as First Section Sergeant. This meant that Lance Corporal Steiner would now became Corporal and squad leader. PFC Cox was promoted to Lance and ASL. Gunter had been promoted to PFC a couple of months ago and Buffy now had her Lance Corporal stripe. This left one Private/PFC slot open in Fifth Squad, but as they were expecting a replacement in the next few days, the boot's arrival could be celebrated later in the week.

Stopping outside a garishly lit joint that called itself 'The Kicking Mule Saloon' (there was a hologram of a very large breasted girl being kicked on the butt by a comedy mule over the door way which seemed to suggest the sort of place the saloon was) Fifth Squad looked up at the sign and wondered if this was the place for them. After watching the hologram go through its sequence a couple of times, everyone looked at Buffy as if she had the casting vote as to whether to go in or not.

“What do you think, Snake?” Sergeant Parsons asked as he looked down at Buffy, “We can find somewhere else if you like.”

Fifth Squad had grown very protective of Buffy over the months and they all tended to act like a bunch of over muscled big brothers whenever they went out on the town while on liberty. Buffy didn't mind because it showed she 'belonged' and if the guys wanted to act like that, who was she to spoil their fun?

“Nah,” Buffy shook her head, “this looks good to me and I'm thirsty.”

Finding herself the centre of a circle of MI who were all very much taller than she was, Buffy was ushered into the saloon. As soon as they crossed the threshold, she realised that they might have come to the wrong place and maybe they should just turn around and leave. Peeping between her ersatz brothers, she saw what looked like the inside of a saloon from out of an old wild west movie. There were even saloon girls in revealing outfits, a long synthi-wood bar with a big mirror behind it and a guy playing a piano. At least he would have been playing the piano if he wasn't staring with open hostility at the MI along with the rest of the clientèle.

“Oh crap,” Buffy whispered from her position at the heart of the squad.

“Stay frosty guys,” Parsons urged, “lets see if we can talk our way out of this.”

“What d'you want...grunt?” a very large miner in dusty coveralls and a beard that reached half way down his chest asked as he took up position in front of Parsons, “We don't like MI grunts 'round here.”

Buffy waited for the miner to punctuate his comment by spitting, but she was to be disappointed. There was a certain animosity between the miners of El Dorado and the MI who used the town for Liberty. How it had started was lost in the mists of time, but it existed for all that.

“We just want a quiet drink,” Parsons replied lightly, “but if you don't want us around, that's fair enough we don't want any trouble, we'll just leave.”

“You ain't goin' nowhere,” said another voice from across the room, “'til we've seen what ya made of.”

“Eww,” Buffy said quietly from the centre of the group; turning a little she caught site of the 'man' who'd spoken, this guy had a beard even longer and bigger than the first guy.

“Like I say,” Parsons tried to defuse the situation but Buffy could feel everyone around her tense ready for a fight, “we don't want any trouble.”

“Tell you what, soldier-boy,” this was from the first beard to speak, “lets see what ya can do...lets see your toughest fight our toughest. If ya win you can go peaceable like, if not you should prepare y'self for the ass wuppin' to end all ass wuppin'!”

There was a hearty cheer from the denizens of the saloon, they all seemed to think this was a terrific idea and probably the most fun any of them had had in months.

“Your toughest against our toughest?” Parsons asked, the lead beard nodded his head, “Okay lets see your toughest.”

There was another cheer from the miners as this guy who must have been about seven feet tall and with the hugest beard that Buffy had ever seen or even dreamed of stood up and growled at the squad...yes he really did actually 'growl'.

“You think you can take him Snake?” Parsons whispered out of the corner of his mouth; Buffy's unusual fighting capabilities were legend amongst Fifth Squad and the Marauders in general.

“No problemo,” Buffy replied after checking the guy with the extra big beard out.

“Okay, now lets see your toughest,” leader-beard said as he chuckled nastily.

“You sure you wanna do this?” Parsons asked the miner, “You know this is only going to end badly for your boy.”

“Sure,” replied the beard, “you chicken or something?”

A chorus of chicken noises broke out around the room; by the sound of things about fifty percent of the miners had never heard a real chicken in their lives.

“Okay,” Parsons sighed loudly, “don't say I didn't warn you...Snake?”

Buffy stepped from between her 'brothers' and looked up at the extra large miner.

“Hi,” Buffy smiled her most empty headed Socal-girl smile, “I'm going to rip off your head and crap down your neck,” she informed the miner mildly; her language would have shocked her mother, but as an old poem said; 'Single women in barracks don't grow into plaster saints'.

“WHAT!?” roared the lead miner as he looked down at Buffy in disbelief, “You...cannot...be...serious!”

“Yep we're serious,” Parsons smiled as he rested his hand on Buffy's shoulder as if he was holding her back, “What's more I'm saying this one little girl can wipe the floor with your guy and anyone else you care to mention...wanna put some money on that?”

“Why you asshole,” snarled the head miner before turning to the giant, “get 'em Claudius!”

With a loud, rumbling roar Claudius advanced on the little group of MI intent on tearing them all limb from limb. Taking a step towards the giant, Buffy sprang into the air and kicked the miner in the mouth. Blood and teeth flew in all directions as the giant stumbled backwards and away from her. Landing in a fighting crouch, she charged the giant and head butted him in the stomach. The giant doubled over in pain, his chin coming down just as her head was going up. Head and chin met and once again the giant was spitting teeth and blood.

Taking a moment to rub the back of her head (these days her hair was short and didn't provide as much cushioning as it once had), Buffy watched for a second as her victim tried to stand up again. Not giving the miner a chance to get back on an even keel, she advanced on the giant and kicked him between the legs. He must have had balls of steel because he still didn't go down, he just sort of groaned softly before aiming a hey-maker at Buffy's head. Ducking under the punch, she stepped inside the miner's guard and proceeded to pummel him into submission. 

Just as Buffy had finished beating her opponent to his knees and she was winding up for the knock out blow. The rest of the miners deciding that they couldn't bear to see their buddy defeated by such a tiny woman that they all jumped in, it was then that the saloon dissolved into a general melee. Disappearing under at least four miners, all of whom needed to take more care with their personal hygiene, Buffy found she couldn't move for a moment or two. With a cry of anger she surged upright sending her attackers flying in all directions across the room.

The MI were outnumbered four or five to one but they had three things on their side. They fought as a unit, while the miners, who were individually formidable, fought as a mob. All the MI were combat veterans who'd been extensively trained in unarmed combat; finally they had Buffy on their side. Striking out and downing miners as she moved, she made it over to where the rest of her squad fought.

Just as the squad were about to make a fighting withdrawal out into the street, the MP's turned up and waded into the fight waving their shock sticks about. Not wanting to be the cause of any more trouble, fifth squad scattered and rapidly left the area. It was a very serious crime for a civilian to attack a member of the armed forces. Fifth Squad felt that honour had been served and if there were no MI around to press charges the MP's couldn't bring the miners to book. This way the bad feeling between the miners and the MI wouldn't get any worse.

Finding herself separated from her buddies, Buffy walked off down another street straightening her uniform as she went. Glancing over her shoulder and seeing that there was no pursuit, she started to look around for another bar, preferably one that wasn't full of belligerent miners. The area she now found herself in must have been a more up market district so she soon found a quiet bar where the waitresses wore outfits that weren't designed to show off so much of the waitress that it put you off the serious business of drinking yourself into stupor.

Sitting down at a table, Buffy called one of the waitresses over and ordered a glass of lemonade and a steak with a side order of vegetables. When they arrived Buffy found both the steak and the lemonade more than acceptable, however the vegetables were a little overcooked and bland. Just as she was deciding whether or not to have a sweet, she was distracted by the appearance of a young, male, MI Lance Corporal.

“Hope you don't mind,” the guy smiled, his teeth extra white in his sunburnt, Hispanic looking face, “but I saw you sitting by yourself and I wondered if I could join you?”

Buffy looked around to see they were the only two military types in the place, she studied the guy for about five seconds before saying...

“Sure why not?” Buffy held out her hand to the young man, “Buffy Summers, my friends call me 'Snake', my unit's the Marauders.”

“Johnny Rico,” Johnny took Buffy's hand and shook it firmly, “Roughnecks,” he flashed his white teeth at her again as he settled himself into the chair across the table from her, “If you don't mind I think I'd like to call you Buffy.”

“I think I could live with that,” Buffy replied with a grin, it was nice to be treated like a girl every now and then.

“You don't see too many female MI about,” Johnny pointed out, “In fact you're my first...”

“Hey!” Buffy replied, “There's more of us every day so you better get used to it, drink?”

“Please,” Johnny smiled, “Lemonade...and I'm not complaining as far as I'm concerned there should be more girls...sorry, I mean young women in the MI.”

“Thank-you for being so open minded,” Buffy said a little ironically as she called over a waitress and ordered two more glasses of lemonade. “So Johnny Rico,” Buffy rested her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, she looked deeply into Rico's dark eyes, “what's your story?”

After a couple of more glasses of lemonade, Buffy reached across the table and took one of Johnny's hands in her own.

“You wanna get a room for the night?” Buffy asked feeling a little like she imagined Faith did when she propositioned a guy; no, scrub that from what she remembered, Faith just grabbed a guy and dragged him back to her liar.

Buffy wasn't normally the sort of girl who picked up guys in bars, at least that's what she liked to tell herself. But, the last time she'd 'been' with a guy was with Riley and that had to be well over two years ago. This Johnny Rico guy seemed nice and sex with him would be uncomplicated, after all she wasn't looking to start a relationship, she just wanted some companionship and comfort. If that meant going to bed and having sex with a hot guy she could definitely live with that.

“You mean, spend the night together?” Rico asked.

“Well duh,” Buffy mocked gently, “what else did you think I meant?”

“I...well...” Rico hesitated.

“You're not a virgin are you?” Buffy gasped in mock surprise.

“NO!” Rico exclaimed, “It's just...you know? Would it be 'proper'?”

“Proper?” Buffy frowned, “Oh I get it, you're worried about all the military stuff, well...look we're both Lance Corporals, so its not as if I'm ordering you to go to bed with me. We're from different units so there's no chain of command concerns or conduct unbecoming problems...of course if you don't think I'm cute enough...”

“Oh no,” Rico shook his head urgently, “you're plenty cute enough...its just...” Rico took a deep breath, “...I never imagined I'd be going to sleep with another MI.”

“So, you think you're going to 'sleep' with me, do you?” Buffy smiled as she stood up, “Lets see about that.”

0=0=0=0

The next morning when Buffy walked back into the room she was sharing with Cox he stuck his head out from under his blankets and studied her through blood shoot eyes.

“Hey Snake,” he yawned, “where've you been all night?”

“Oh, just out,” Buffy replied as she started to remove her clothes, she needed to shower and a change of uniform.

“Out?” Cox asked suspiciously as he pushed himself further up his bed and watched Buffy closely for a moment or two, “You got lucky didn't you?”

“Me? Lucky?” Buffy smiled as she kicked off her boots and took off her uniform shirt and trousers, “A lady never tells so you're gonna have to keep guessing Coxy.”

“You're not a lady, Snake,” Cox laughed, “so spill!”

Picking up her towel, soap and shampoo Buffy smiled a satisfied smile and headed for the showers.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

It was two days before the 'H' was due to boost out of K7's system and everyone had been ordered to move out of the liberty barracks in El Dorado and back aboard ship. Having replaced all her kit in her locker and the drawers below her bunk, Buffy was just about to head on down to the armoury and start checking inventories. Only the previous day she'd been given the job of platoon armourer since Corporal Galloway, the previous armourer, had been reassigned. Just as she was heading out of the squad bay she almost collided with Steiner who was on his way in.

“Snake!” Steiner grinned down at her, “I was just looking for you.”

“What's up, Mutt?” Buffy stepped back letting Steiner come all the way into the bay, “I'm busy I've got bombs to count.”

“And I've got good news,” today Mutt Steiner didn't seem to be able to stop himself from grinning; Buffy became immediately suspicious of her squad leader's motives.

“You have?”

“Yep,” Steiner put a friendly hand on Buffy's shoulder, “it looks like you're gonna have some competition for the title of 'Prettiest MI aboard the H Jones', up 'til now it's looked like you were gonna win the title hands down...”

“What are you talking about Mutt?” Buffy wanted to know; the 'Prettiest MI' thing was a purely honorary title the platoon had bestowed on her about half way through their last tour after someone had found some holo-pictures of her in her old high school cheerleader costume.

“Our replacement has arrived and its another girl,” Steiner grinned like a fool, “looks like you're not going to be 'Queen Bee' for much longer.”

“What makes you think that, huh?” Buffy asked with mock belligerence, “And be careful what you say unless you want to be thrown through that bulkhead.”

“Look, calm down, Snake,” Steiner held up his hands in surrender and took a step away from Buffy as if he did actually believe she'd throw him through the bulkhead, “Look, I haven't seen her yet, but the rumour is she's even cuter than you are...” Steiner paused for a couple of seconds before speaking again, “...and taller!”

“Why you...” Buffy's face darkened as she lifted her fist to strike.

“Hey!” Steiner laughed, “No striking your squad leader! I can't help what the Replacement Section send us.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy admitted deflating a little, “but you wait until I get you in the gym!”

“Ooooh, I'm scared,” Steiner mocked good-naturedly, “Anyway she's waiting down at the main airlock I want you to welcome her aboard and make her feel at home.”

“Do I have to?” Buffy whined a little.

“Would you prefer Coxy to be the one to welcome her aboard?”

“Nah,” Buffy shook her head; PFC now Lance Corporal Cox had turned into a decent sort of guy since Buffy had beaten the crap out of him when she'd first arrived; she even counted him as one of her close friends. But, he still wasn't the sort of guy she would have chosen to greet a new female trooper aboard. “Okay,” Buffy signed as if she was being grievously put upon, “I'll do it...main air lock you say?”

“That's the one,” Steiner confirmed as he stepped back to let Buffy out of the bay, he called to her as she walked off down the companion way, “and play nice Snake!”

0=0=0=0

Walking through the ship towards the main air lock Buffy felt a little torn. On the one hand it would be nice to have another MI girl aboard. On the other she rather liked being 'Queen Bee' and the idea of her losing her 'Prettiest MI' title, even though she hadn't had much competition (a few guys in drag had made it into a 'real' contest), made her feel just a little grumpy. Whatever, Buffy signed as she climbed a ladder down to the air lock deck, as long as the replacement wasn't a complete bitch, she'd make it work out.

Turning a corner, Buffy got her first glimpse of the replacement. The girl had her back to her so she couldn't see her face yet. However, the replacement was taller than her, nothing unusual there Buffy told herself. The Boot had short blonde hair; while most guys either shaved their heads or kept their hair to about a quarter of an inch in length, MI girls usually kept theirs one or two inches long. Buffy's own hair was just over two inches long and she really needed to get it properly cut before they boosted out of the system. The new girl looked fit, if a little wide in 'the beam'; Buffy stopped the term 'big butt' escaping her lips but it still made her snigger. The sound of Buffy's snigger appeared to attract the Boot's attention and she turned around to see who was behind her.

“BUFFY!” cried the girl, and Buffy found herself engulfed in a warm, busty embrace as the boot threw herself at her.

“H-H-Harmony!” Buffy gasped as the other girl continued to hug her excitedly; Buffy had to remind herself that in this time and place, Harmony and herself had been a little more than just friends and sister cheerleaders at Sunnydale High.

In this reality, Buffy, Cordelia and Harmony had all been friends and cheerleaders together they'd been almost inseparable. Also from what Buffy had read in the copies of the Sunnydale High Year books and magazines she'd found on the interstellar-web, they'd actually been well thought of by the school staff and their peers. Nice cheerleaders, it had taken Buffy some time to get her head around the idea, she still didn't really believe it.

“OH!” Harmony let go of Buffy like she'd become red hot, “Sorry!” Harmony pulled her uniform straight and came to attention, “44717429 Private Kendal, H, reporting for duty, Corporal!”

“Stand easy, trooper,” Buffy smiled and wondered if she'd looked as earnest as Harmony did when she'd joined the H; after a moments thought Buffy decided she hadn't, “Welcome to the H Jones, when the hell did you enlist, and why didn't you tell me?”

“Just after the news about what happened on Klendathu reached Earth,” Harmony explained, “it seemed like the time to totally step up and like do my duty.”

Buffy did some quick calculations in her head, Klendathu had been nine or ten months ago, Harmony couldn't possibly have completed her training yet.

“I totally know what you're gonna say,” Harmony sighed, “they don't give you Sundays off anymore in Boot Camp now, and I didn't tell you in case I washed out.”

“Oh I get it,” Buffy nodded, “anyway you've been assigned to fifth squad, second section...” Buffy found herself grinning so hard it hurt, “...that's my squad, looks like we're going to be bunking together...but not in the same bunk, if you see...” Buffy shut up before she said anything else stupid, somehow Harmony's appearance was having an adverse effect on her coolness. “Whatever,” she thought she better get her old school friend squared away, “grab your kit and I'll take you to the squad bay.”

After waiting for Harmony to pick up her gear, Buffy led her through the ship towards the squad bay.

“How come you joined up, Harm?” Buffy asked as they walked along the passageway together.

“Like I say it seemed like the thing to do and my parents were killed when the Bugs totally flattened Detroit,” Harmony explain soberly, “They were visiting family, I was supposed to join them but...”

“Yeah, sorry,” Buffy found it hard to commiserate; Detroit, Earth even, seemed so far away that she found it difficult to believe in them anymore, her universe pretty much consisted of the H, it's crew and her buddies.

Of course she'd heard about the Bug's bombardment of Earth. Bug ships would infiltrate the Solar System and hide out in the asteroid belt. There they'd fit the bug version of the Cherenkov Drive to some big lump of rock and send it hurtling towards Earth. There was a lot of argument about whether the bugs could aim the rocks or not, but the way that more than fifty percent of them hit important targets it couldn't just be luck. Of course the Navy did its best to intercept the bug ships coming in system. They did in fact intercept ninety-eight percent of them, but that still meant two percent got through and two percent was enough to cause tragedies like Detroit.

“...so here I am,” Harmony's voice penetrated Buffy's mind again, “I so wanted to do something to totally hit back for my folks.”

“But the MI, Harm?” Buffy helped Harmony up a ladder with her kit, “Why not the Navy?”

“Oh come on Buffy,” Harmony laughed lightly, “you know I'm not clever enough to be like a pilot or anything cool and I totally didn't want to just be a space-hand...I wanted to see those bug bastards burn for what they did, so I chose the MI.”

“Yeah right,” Buffy was a little taken aback by Harmony's strength of feeling, she decided to change the subject to something a little less emotive, “Where'd you do your training?”

“Camp Edith Cavell,” Harmony replied, “it's the new all women's camp near Camp Currie.”

“Oh,” Buffy wasn't sure that setting up an all female training facility was such a good idea; you needed the guys to accept female troopers as equals and separating the female recruits from the male ones didn't seem to be such a good idea, “so, you didn't live in the same camp as the guys?”

“No,” Harmony said as they went up yet another ladder, this one led to the MI section of the ship.

“Erm...” Buffy didn't know how to say what was worrying her, so she jumped in with both feet, “...Harm, how do you feel about showering with the guys?”

“WHAT!?” Harmony came to a sudden stop half way up the ladder, “Like you mean, totally nude in the shower with guys!?”

“Look, Harm,” Buffy pulled Harmony up the rest of the ladder and pushed her to one side of the corridor where they could talk without getting in anyone's way, “I've spent a lot of time being accepted by the guys and part of being accepted is being one of 'the guys'.”

“Oh,” Harmony's mind churned over this new information, she might not be very quick, but she wasn't stupid, which was a marked improvement on the version of Harmony that Buffy had known in her own time.

“I've got the guys,” Buffy paused for half a second, “well, most of them anyway, to not see me as a 'girl' and part of that is them seeing me in the shower or undressing or even using the heads!”

“Eww,” Harmony screwed up her face in disgust before she asked, “You mean no one looks...I mean when you're totally naked in the shower or whatever?”

“Of course they look,” Buffy laughed, “they wouldn't be human if they didn't but they don't stare and they don't leer and to be honest I'm not above looking either,” a wide smile split Buffy's face, “After all, they're all hunks and I'm only human.”

“Do you totally have,” Harmony looked up and down the corridor to check no one was listening, “s-e-x with any of them?”

“NO!” Buffy replied urgently, “Under no circumstances are you to have sex with anyone on the ship, Navy or MI, guy or girl!”

“Buffy!” Harmony sounded shocked, her parents had always taught her that sex was fun and a basic human need.

“Look,” Buffy needed to set Harmony straight and she needed to do it quickly, “you can't have an emotional relationship with anyone aboard your ship it would be bad for moral in oh so many ways and might get you or your lover killed.”

“I see,” there was a deep frown on Harmony's face as she slowly thought Buffy's words over, “I totally get that, but what do you do for...you know...s...e...x?”

“What everyone else does,” Buffy started to head off towards the squad bay again with Harmony trailing along behind her.

“Okay, like what does everyone else do?” Harmony asked innocently.

“When I was on liberty I got lucky with a cute Lance from another ship,” Buffy explained, “he was nice and good looking and really very satisfying!”

“Buffy!” Harmony gasped in shock, “And you were like, such a 'nice' girl at school.”

By 'nice' Harmony meant 'straight laced'.

“I was?” Buffy shrugged, “Whatever...” she continued, “...and before we boost out of this dive you might want to buy yourself some toys, I know this little shop in El Dorado...”

“Toys?” Harmony frowned.

“Yeah, toys,” Buffy nodded.

“Toys?” Harmony repeated.

“Toys for relieving _stress_ and _tension_ ,” Buffy explained slowly.

“Oh!” Harmony smiled brightly, “Like computer games?”

“I'll explain later,” Buffy rolled her eyes in despair, they were now standing outside the squad bay, “we're here, lets get you introduced and squared away.”

0=0=0=0

Climbing through the hatch into the squad bay, Buffy found that the only other people in the compartment were, Cox and Gunter.

“High guys,” Buffy said brightly once she was through the hatch, “looks like you'll be the first, after me of course, to welcome our new boot,” Buffy gestured to where Harmony was climbing through the hatch, “Private Harmony Kendal.” 

Harmony straightened up to look at her two new squad mates.

“Harm,” Buffy went on with the introductions, “the big guy is Gunter von Linbeck better known as Gun. The even bigger guy is Lance Corporal Cox, also known as Coxy, he's assistant squad leader.”

“Hi,” Cox and Gun nodded in unison.

“Harm here is an old school buddy of mine, so you better be nice to her,” Buffy explained, “other than that you treat her just like you treat me.”

“We can!?” Cox exclaimed as a big grin spread across his face.

Oh well, thought Buffy, a little harmless hazing of the newbie helped a unit bond into an effective fighting force, at least that's what it said in her NCO's handbook.

“Hey,” Buffy stepped up to Cox and pulled his ear down to her mouth so she could whisper in it, “Play nice, Harm's a nice kid so I don't want her upset...but other than that I don't see why she shouldn't have to deal with some of the stuff I had to.”

“Look Snake,” Cox whispered back, “what do you take me for? I wouldn't do anything really _bad_ to her, since you came aboard I'm a reformed character, yay for women's lib an' all that good stuff I say!”

“Yeah right,” Buffy let go of Cox;'s ear before turning to look at Harmony again, “Harm, you take that bunk,” Buffy pointed to a spare bunk, “get yourself squared away and then I'll take you to see Corporal Steiner the squad leader and Ship's Sergeant O'Connor the platoon leader. Sergeant Perry our Section sergeant is still off ship so you'll see him tomorrow after you've spoken to the Platoon Leader.”

“Okay, sure,” Harmony replied as she threw her kit bag on her bunk, even with Buffy presence she was finding things just a little overwhelming.

0=0=0=0

It was early in the evening and Harmony was going to have a shower. When she'd undressed in the squad bay no one had stared at her or leered just like Buffy had said, but she had noticed a couple of guys checking her out, but then again she'd checked out a couple of her squad mates too so everything was even, right? After she'd squared away her kit, Buffy had taken her to meet various NCO's and troopers who she was sure would become important to her life as time passed. At the moment she was just a little overwhelmed with all the new names and faces, but she'd get them all sorted out in her mind soon.

On the plus side none of her new NCO's were anywhere near as beastly as the training NCOs had been back at Camp Cavell. They mostly seemed pleased she was there and didn't yell at her all the time; another good thing was she'd been assigned to help Buffy in the armoury as her ship board job. Harmony was looking forward to this, back in school Buffy had always tried to help her with her school work and it was only because of Buffy's help that she'd graduated.

But now, Harmony was heading to the showers. Having taken Buffy's advice she'd kept her bra and panties on until she was actually in the washroom. Looking around, Harmony found the washroom completely deserted. Breathing a sigh of relief she started to undress, undressing in front of a load of guys she could deal with. After all, she'd been a cheerleader and some of the outfits she'd worn back then hadn't left much to the imagination. However actually showering in front of a bunch of guys, she didn't know if she could handle that yet, whatever Buffy might say. It would probably take her a little time before she felt completely comfortable with the idea let alone the reality.

Hanging up her towel, after slipping out of her underwear Harmony walked into the shower room. Heading over to a shower head on the far side of the compartment, she reached up and took hold of the control unit. Pressing the 'on' button she adjusted the temperature and sighed with pleasure as the warm water cascaded over her body. It was just as she started to soap herself down that she sensed movement behind her. Turning slowly she saw half a dozen guys dressed only in dark glasses and fake noses, sitting on fold-away chairs watching her intently.

“AAAGH!” Harmony screamed as she tried to cover her embarrassment with her bar of soap...it was far too small for the purpose.

Grinning like a bunch of perverts the guys held up home made score cards in their hands. For some reason that she'd never really understand Harmony was quite proud to see that the scores were all pretty high ones. The guys then stood up and gave her a round of applause before picking up their chairs and running from the room.

“Everything all right in here?” Buffy asked as she entered the shower after letting the six naked MI out.

“Fine,” Harmony smiled nervously as Buffy joined her at the next shower head down.

“So,” Buffy asked as she switched on the water, “what score did you get?”

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

The H Jones had been on patrol for about four months after leaving K7 and the Marauders had just come back from another successful mission. The raid had been on a bug mining facility on a small asteroid in a system that didn't even have any planets, just lots of lumps of rock orbiting around a small, dim, yellow star. Normally the Navy would have whistled up a capital ship which would then have reduced the bug base to space dust. However, at this point in the war the Terran Federation still had big holes in its knowledge about the bugs. Like; how did the bugs work in micro-gravity, could the bugs work in a vacuum, did they have vacuum suits? The answers to these questions where; not very well, yes and no!

The entire platoon had landed on the planetoid, which as it turned out was complete overkill. Compared to the numbers of worker bugs working in the mines there were hardly any warriors to guard the place. Perhaps the Bug High command thought that the base was safe or too well hidden, maybe they thought that the Federation wouldn't bother with it even if they found it, who knows how bugs think? But, the Navy did find it and it was marked down for destruction.

The first thing that Buffy and her comrades discovered was that warrior bugs didn't function well in micro-gravity. They also didn't have any vacuum suits but they could survive in vacuum for about thirty minutes before they decompressed in a spectacular fashion. The worker bugs seemed better able to deal with low gravity, possibly due to their smaller mass, than the warriors. But they decompressed explosively within minutes of being exposed to hard vacuum.

The Marauders also discovered that the best way of dealing with this type of bug facility was to blast open an air lock or passageway that came close to the surface. Stand back and wait for any bugs in the area to be sucked out into space (shooting any warriors as they went by) and then once the bugs had stopped coming, enter the tunnels and repeat the procedure until the rock was bug free. As it turned out this only took the Marauders a couple of hours.

After being retrieved, the assault force re-entered the 'H' through the shuttle bay. Today as there had been little use for scouts Buffy had been wearing one of the much more heavily armed and armoured marauder suits. Once she was back inside atmosphere, she popped her face plate and turned to speak to Harmony who was walking along next to her.

“You know, Harm,” Buffy joked, “you don't have to make it your personal life's work to kill every bug in the galaxy, leave a few for the rest of us will you?”

“Why not?” Harmony replied simply; in the last few months Harmony had earnt her nickname of 'Harm' by becoming a determined and efficient fighter, she'd already been promoted to PFC.

“Why not?” Buffy asked as they headed towards the arming room together, “Well, if you kill all the bugs what are the rest of us supposed to do?”

Buffy never found out what Harmony thought the rest of the army was supposed to do while she single handed exterminated every bug in the universe, because Ship's Sergeant O'Connor came over to them, he like everyone else was still dressed in his armour.

“Snake, Harm,” he looked down at the two women as he stood in front of them, “De-arm, clean up and be in your best khakis asap, the Captain wants to see you!”

“W-what!?” for a moment Buffy forgot her military protocol, Lance Corporals didn't say 'What!?' when her platoon sergeant told them to do somewhere, “I mean, do you know why, Sarge?” 

“No idea,” O'Connor lifted his arms to indicate he was shrugging, “I was just told the Captain wanted to see you both in her cabin, like yesterday.”

“Crap,” Buffy glanced at Harmony as she tried to think of anything they'd done wrong, ship's Captains do not normally bother themselves with lowly MI Lance Corporals.

“On the bounce people,” O'Connor ordered jogging Buffy out of her mental turmoil.

“Hey, Snake,” Harmony whispered as they trotted towards the arming room, “maybe its something good.”

“Never,” Buffy replied as they headed over to a couple of the suit machines to get their armour removed, “my life is never that good!”

0=0=0=0

Thirty-seven minutes later, Buffy and Harmony had been disarmed and de-armoured, they'd showered and were now dressed in their best khakis and were waiting outside Captain Rodriguez's cabin. Giving each other a last inspection, neither young woman could think of any reason why the Captain would want to see them, this just didn't happen; at least it had never happened while Buffy had been aboard the 'H'.

Pulling her uniform straight one final time before picking an invisible speck of dust from Harmony's shoulder, Buffy lifted her hand to knock on the cabin door. Before her knuckles even made contact with the door it slid open to reveal Ship's Sergeant O'Connor. For a moment Buffy wondered on the time bending capabilities of Ship's Sergeants; she asked herself how the heck he'd got there before Harmony and herself. 

Standing to one side O'Connor indicated that Buffy and Harmony should enter. He closed the door behind them as the two female MI marched up to stand in front of the Captain's desk. Standing at a rigid attention they saluted the captain. It was only then that Buffy noticed Mr Thompson, the Marauder's new platoon leader (Mr Metcalfe having bought a small piece of a farm on the first mission of the 'H's present tour) standing to one side of the Captain's desk. At this point she realised that they must have found out she wasn't the 'real' Buffy Summers and were going to throw her out of the MI.

“At ease, Corporal Summers, Private Kendal,” Captain Rodriguez was a dark haired woman in her early thirties with a soft, warm voice, “I've called you here today because I have some important news for you concerning your home town, you're both from Sunnydale, California in the North American Union, correct?”

“Yes Ma'am,” Buffy and Harmony replied in chorus both wondering what could have possibly happened that would require that they both had to talk to the Captain.

“We've just learnt that about three weeks ago,” the Captain began, “a bug warship successfully infiltrated the Terran solar system's asteroid belt. Before the Navy managed to hunt it down and destroy the raider, the bugs successfully launched three asteroids at Earth. One missed the planet completely, one hit the Siberian Wastelands,” the Captain paused for a moment before continuing. “It is my most painful duty and it is with deep regret that I have to inform you that the town of Sunnydale received a direct hit and was completely destroyed...I'm afraid casualties were as near one-hundred percent as makes no difference.”

Buffy suddenly found that she couldn't breath and that a great weight was pressing down on her shoulders. This couldn't be happening, she'd received an entire 'bundle' of letters from Dawn when the 'H' had docked at K7, she'd only just finished reading them.

“...the ONI believe that the rock was intended for LA...” the Captain's voice continued as if from very far away.

Opening her mouth to try and say something, Buffy found no words to speak and no questions to ask. Having lost her real mother, Buffy had been hoping to reconnect with the woman who had been her mother in the future and of course there was Dawn, she must be dead too.

“...I know that no words of mine can relieve the sense of grief and loss you must find so overwhelming right now” The Captain continued rather formally, “But I cannot stop myself from tendering to you my and the Navy's heart felt commiserations at your loss. I pray that our Heavenly Father may ease the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only with the cherished memories of your loved ones.”

Unable to breath or think, Buffy felt her legs go weak just before they gave way completely. Collapsing onto the floor of the Captain's cabin, she was only vaguely aware of what was going on around her. Once again she felt the feelings of total loss like she'd felt after her 'real' mother had died. Only it was worse this time because she'd never be able to get home to say goodbye. It was only then that she realised that her mother and sister would have no real grave, no marker to show that they had been real people and not just names on a Roll of Honour.

Becoming aware of Harmony's arms around her, Buffy came back from the edge of the smoking crater that had been Sunnydale. Managing to take a deep breath, she started to get control of herself again and let Harmony help her to her feet. Sniffing and wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Buffy came to attention and looked down at the Captain through tear blurred eyes.

“Thank-you, Ma'am for taking the time to inform me...” Buffy suddenly remembered that Harmony would have lost people too, “...sorry, I mean, us, it's much appreciated.”

“It was no trouble,” Captain Rodriguez gave the two Sunnydalers a sad smile, “It was the very least I could do...I'm sorry that this time the Navy failed you. You do realise that you're both eligible for compassionate leave, of course I can't take the ship off station, but next time we meet a courier ship...”

“With all due respect, Ma'am,” Harmony spoke up clearly, “Speaking for myself and I think for Corporal Summers, we'd both prefer to stay aboard and take leave with the rest of the platoon when the 'H' docks for her next refit.” Harmony glanced at Buffy before speaking again, “The Marauders are our family and the 'H' is our only home now.”

0=0=0=0

It was only ten days after the H Jones had received the news that Sunnydale had been destroyed that orders arrived for the 'H' to take part in Operation, 'Sudden Lightning'; a major counter-attack against the bugs.

The planet of Thule had first been colonised back in 2022 not long after humanity's discovery of the Cherenkov Drive, in fact it was one of the first Earth-type planets to be discovered and opened up for colonisation. Thule had had a population of nearly five-hundred-million before the bugs attacked. Most of the population had lived in one of the great, beautiful glass and steel cities on the southern 'Africa' sized continent. The planet had boasted hi-tech robotic factories and farms which supplied the population with all its needs. This allowed them to dedicate themselves to physical and academic excellence. Above the planet were great orbital shipyards that constructed merchant as well as naval vessels.

When the bugs attacked all these factors came together to save Thule. The system defence forces never quite lost control of the system to the bugs in those first weeks. This allowed Thule's industries time to be put on a war footing. However, bug numbers eventually wore down the outer system defences. At the time the Federation was fighting for its life after the disaster of Klendathu and there was little left to send to help Thule, most people expected Earth to be attacked and invaded on an almost daily basis.

However the battle of Thule ground on. Every day the Thulian fighters would rise to contest near space with the bug space forces and everyday they would prevail and prevent the bugs from completely taking control of the space around the planet. Once the bugs had Orbital Superiority nothing the Thulians could do on the surface would matter because the bugs would be able to simply pound anything on the surface into dust.

Even with such a desperate defence the bugs still managed to get some ships through and form a beachhead on the southern continent. To counter these landings the Thulians had built themselves great war machines which looked like giant tanks (the idea had been taken from the pages of an old science fiction book written in the late twentieth century). These tanks or 'Bolos' had multiple man crews and were powered by their own fusion reactors and were armed with the very best defensive and offensive weapons that the Thulians could design and build. They slaughtered the bug warriors in their thousands, possibly in their hundreds of thousands, but there were always more bugs to fight.

It was believed that the bugs had several nests where they could 'hatch' more warrior and worker bugs. With a steady stream of new warriors coming on line the Thulian forces were doomed to a slow and total destruction. At the time that Operation Sudden Lightning was being planned the Thulian forces had fought the bugs to a temporary stalemate. Each side was building up their forces for what was to be the battle that would decide whether Man or Bug would rule Thule.

The plan was to catch the bugs between two forces before they launched their offensive. First a Naval Task Force would sweep into the system hopefully catching the bugs by surprise before chasing off or destroying any bug space units. Once the Navy had isolated the bugs on the planet surface the Thulian ground forces would launch their own offensive while two divisions of MI were dropped in the bug rear. While one MI division formed a stop line behind the main bug forces, the other division would search out and destroy the bug nests cutting the bugs facing the Thulians off from reinforcements. 

It was hoped that the bugs would keep on attacking until they were almost completely eliminated. This 'hope' was backed up by how the bugs had operated during previous battles. It was believed that after a few days heavy fighting the bug threat to Thule would have been eliminated and any surviving bugs could be destroyed by the local forces leaving the Federal forces to move out and redeploy before the bug High Command worked out what had happened.

0=0=0=0

All these plans meant little to Buffy and Harmony as they worked in the armoury preparing weapons and ordnance for the coming battle. As the Marauders were one of the platoons detailed to block the bug reinforcements, two squads (one from each section) where being armed as Heavy Weapons Squads. This meant that Heavy Flamers and Light Assault Guns that weren't normally used on raids had to be brought out of storage, serviced and test fired. Each Squad Leader and Assistant Squad leader would be issued with a rocket launcher and a supply of HE and nuclear warheads. When the 'H' had docked briefly with a fleet auxiliary vessel for additional supplies they'd also taken on crates of grenades and cylinders containing the heavier than air nerve gas that had proved so effective against the bugs in the past.

All these new weapons Buffy and Harmony would have to check, test, count and issue. At the same time they had to make sure that there were 'packages' of replacement weapons and ammunition that the 'H' could drop to the platoon at need. Normally Fleet supply units would resupply the MI in the field, but the bugs often screwed with people's plans so it was a good idea to have these 'packages' of weapons and supplies ready to go. The crew of the 'H' could then load them onto shuttles and fly them down to the surface without having to worry about packing the correct equipment.

After a week of preparing for the attack the 'H' joined up with the other ships in the Task Force and set course for Thule. With any luck the bugs were about to receive a major set back and a certain MI corporal would start to exact her revenge on the bugs for the destruction of her home town.

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

The drop went by the numbers and on the bounce. When Buffy jettisoned the inner shell of her re-entry capsule she found herself at fifteen thousand feet with a panoramic view of Thule spread out below her. Taking a moment to check on her position and that of her squad mates, she noticed a bright green beam flash up from the surface and burn away a piece of the shell she'd just jettisoned. The bugs were awake and shooting back, which was unusual because the bugs normally didn't bother. With all the pieces of capsule falling from the sky it was next to impossible to pick out a worthwhile target from a piece of junk, but sometimes the bugs tried. Perhaps one day they'd work out a counter to a drop and be able to blast her and her buddies out of the sky before they could even land. When that day came humanity would have to think up a new way of landing troops.

Popping her ribbon chute, Buffy slowed down dramatically and pulled herself above the cloud of debris and hopefully off the bug sensors. The chute lasted five or ten seconds before it jettisoned automatically, but it had been enough to pull her to safety. A quick check of her HUD showed that no one had been hit and that the squad wasn't scattering, she tried to find the location from where the bug had taken its shot, but she couldn't find the firing point. Deciding that it was just a little too exposed hanging around up in the sky, she curled into a ball and dropped at terminal velocity towards the ground. After a moment or two she uncurled and went into a swan dive.

Her job as scout meant she had to land at about the same time as Mutt Steiner, her squad leader, which was cool by her; Buffy found all this dropping through space really exhilarating. Keeping one eye on her altimeter; although she didn't need to, her proximity sensors would open her chute automatically long before she crashed into the surface, Buffy spent a little time studying the ground below her. Quickly finding the village that was going to be the centre of the squad's defensive position, she cast her gaze across the ground around the settlement.

The general terrain around the village was gently rolling grassland with widely spaced woods. There were few roads outside the village because the Thulians were advanced enough to use air-cars. What roads there were, were little more than graded tracks for the heavy construction machines that had been used to build the hamlet. Around the village itself were what looked like gardens or vegetable plots plus a few orchards. Other than a couple of streams (neither of which were of any military significance) there was no surface water other than a couple of man made pools to the east of the village.

As Buffy dropped closer to the surface she could pick out more detail, this area of Thule had been under bug control since the bugs had first landed on the planet. Dropping closer to the village, Buffy could see the damage done by bug weapon's fire, of the inhabitants, she could see no sign. One of the secondary objectives of this mission was to try and find out what the bugs did with any civilian populations they might capture. The Federation knew that the bugs had several thousand military prisoners, but apart from some wild rumours about work camps and scientific experimentation, no one knew what happened to the civilians when the bugs came calling. One thing was certain, the bugs didn't leave people to get on with their lives, the village below her was definitely deserted.

Her altimeter now read less than three thousand feet and Buffy started to pick out a landing spot. There was a nice, flat, green in the centre of the village which looked like it would serve her purposes. As soon as she landed she'd need to do a quick scout of the squad's area to make sure there were no bugs close by. It was a little like inviting the bugs to shoot at her, because that was the quickest way of finding the enemy. So far she'd never received more than a glancing hit from the bug projectile weapons, if she'd been hit by one of those green-beam-ray-guns the bugs used, she wouldn't be there now.

At five hundred feet Buffy popped her main chute and rapidly slowed down to landing velocity. Jettisoning her chute at fifty feet, she came into land on her jets. Landing in the middle of the green, she crouched down as she pulled her plasma rifle from its position on her back and jettisoned her unused secondary chute and her parachute harness. While she was doing this she was also doing a visual scan of her surrounding. Everything looked much as it had from above but now she could see more detail. 

Doors and windows had been smashed in, there was weapons damage on every building and she could see that several of them were fire damaged. There were a couple of air-cars that had been shot down or shot up before they could get airborne, Buffy could clearly see the bullet holes in the air-car's skins and there also appeared to be blood on the door of one the closest vehicle's. Once again of the bugs there was no sign, which was good. Although reconnaissance drones had reported no bugs in the area, bugs had a nasty habit of turning up where they were least expected.

Jumping into the air again, Buffy overrode her jets and started to do a quick spiral search of the area. The Marauder's task during 'Sudden Lightning' was to form part of the cordon that would prevent the bugs from sending reinforcement to fight the Thulian counter attack. Or, to prevent the bugs who were facing the Thulians retreating back to the nests that other MI units would be busy gassing and clearing.

As she moved out from the centre of the village, Buffy's HUD showed her comrades coming into land and moving into their defensive positions. Fifth squad would take up a hexagonal formation around the village. When everything was set, Mutt and herself would take up position in the village itself and act as a mobile reserve. Flying along at about twenty feet above the ground, Buffy saw no sign of bugs, however, she did see that the bugs had been in the area recently, the thought came to her that the bugs might have left some booby traps behind. The bugs had never done this before but there was always a first time for everything.

“Hello, Five-One,” Buffy called Mutt over the squad net, “this is Five-Two-Sierra, message over.”

“Five-One, send, over,” Mutt's voice came back to Buffy loud and clear in her ear bugs.

“Five-Two-Sierra,” Buffy replied, “no bugs in view, but there's signs they've been here recently, look out for mines and booby traps, over.”

“Five-One, roger that,” Mutt called back, “all 'Five' call-signs acknowledge Five-Two-Sierra's last, over.”

As Buffy flew on she heard all her squad mates acknowledge that they'd heard her message. Satisfied that if anyone got themselves blown up it was their own silly fault for not looking where they were going, she flew on until she came to what was going to be the squad's perimeter. Grounding herself on a slight rise she spent a moment or two scanning the country in the direction from which the bugs were expected to come. There was no sign of hostile movement. The bug command tended to react slowly to anything unexpected on an operational level. They made up for this by their almost magical ability to coordinate rapid counter-attacks on a tactical level.

Seeing nothing, Buffy was just about to bounce off and start a slower search of the area when she saw a marauder suit flying towards her just above the long, lush green grass. Her 'Identification, Friend or Foe' told her that suit belonged to Harmony. Once Harmony had grounded a few yards away, Buffy tapped the side of her own helmet signalling to Harm that she should go to the Squawk-net so they could talk privately.

“Hi Harm,” Buffy called happy to see her friend; Buffy always thought it a little odd that two people who were so obviously Harmony Kendal could be so different...and her best friend in all the galaxy, “What-cha-doin'?” 

“Hi Snake,” Harmony replied as she walked over to stand in front of Buffy, “I'm just planting some presents for our bug friends.”

Harmony held up the metal box in her left hand, it contained thirty Claymore mines. Basically each mine consisted of a slab of plastic explosive implanted with a couple of hundred plastic, kinetic, penetrators. On the top of the mine was a small sensor package that told the mine to explode five or ten seconds after a bug walked into its kill zone. As the mines were made out of stealthed materials they were very hard to spot; so if they didn't detonate within three months of being activated they would bio-degrade.

“Cool,” Buffy imagined the havoc the mines would cause to any bug attack, “everything okay, you got a good fighting position?”

“Yeah I'm totally fine,” Harmony replied as she lined up a claymore so it had a good field of fire, “my combat zone is over by those woods,” Harmony pointed to a large wood about a mile to their rear, “its on a ridge so I can zip up and down without being seen.”

Even in defence it was MI doctrine to keep moving and not tie yourself down to one location. If you stayed in one place for too long the bugs were sure to get you, it might take them hundreds of bugs to do it, but bug commanders appeared to be willing to expend large numbers of warriors and workers to kill even one MI.

“Good,” Buffy replied as she looked over towards Harmony's combat zone, “you keep your head down and try not to get killed, you hear me?”

“I hear you _Lance Corporal_ ,” Harmony called back before asking, “Any sign of the bugs?”

“Not really,” Buffy admitted, “but there's sign they've been here recently, so watch out, okay?”

“Yeah, I'll be careful,” Harmony sounded like she was telling her mom that she wouldn't be home late from a party or something, “as long as you're careful too.”

“Me!?” Buffy laughed, “I was born careful, I intend to see the end of this war and retire.”

“Retire?” Harmony gave a snort of derision as she got up from planting her mine, “You? Honestly Buffy what will you do when the war's over, you live for this stuff.”

“I do?” Buffy hadn't really thought about it before, but now Harmony had mentioned it, she thought Harm was probably right, perhaps it was something to do with her slayerism?

With no vampires or demons to kill, they were still around, she felt sure, but she hadn't really met any since she'd appeared in this time (did those hellhound-like things on Astrogard really count?). However, the bugs seemed to fill her need to 'slay' so unless something changed, she'd keep on toasting bugs until there were none left to toast or they gave up and cried 'Uncle', or, in Buffy and Harm's case 'Auntie'!

“Whatever,” Buffy's shrug was lost under her suit, “I gotta go, you keep safe now,” Bshe called as she bounced into the air, “Get some, Harm!”

“Get some, Snake!” Harmony called in reply as she watched Buffy's suit zip off into the distance.

Flying low across the grass, Buffy searched for other signs of bug activity, she found nothing until she came to the edge of the village behind Harmony's combat zone and the zone which was the responsibility of PFC Pavel Jones, aka 'Ivan the Terribly Nice'. Coming in for a landing near what looked like a small warehouse, Buffy walked over to inspect what she'd seen as she'd been flying by.

All around the warehouse, Buffy could see what might have been bug and human foot prints, it was difficult to be sure. The bugs had conquered this area over a year ago and there'd been plenty of 'weather' since then; on the other hand, apart from the occasional bug patrol no one had disturbed the village in all that time. Moving around the warehouse and hefting her rifle into a more comfortable position, Buffy remembered that she was supposed to tell people what she was doing before wandering off into possible danger.

“Hello, Five-One, this is Five-Two-Sierra, I've found something interesting on the south-west edge of the village, over.”

“Five-One,” Mutt Steiner's voice came back to Buffy, “I see you on my HUD, what've you got, do you need help? Over.”

“Five-Two-Sierra, I'll be fine, no sign of recent bug activity, it's probably nothing but I want to check it out, over.”

“Five-One, roger that, you keep your eyes open and on the bounce, out.” Mutt broke the connection and Buffy heard him start to talk to Coxy who was her team leader.

Satisfied now that if she did meet anything dangerous someone was keeping an eye on her, Buffy moved cautiously around the building. If it hadn't been for the sound of her own breathing and her heartbeat echoing in her ears, she could almost imagine that she was back home sneaking through some back alley, unarmoured and equipped only with a stake. Smiling as she imagined going after vamps dressed in her power armour suit, she hardly noticed when she came out into the a cleared area behind the warehouse.

The ground had been blasted clear so as to make a large flat area that still showed signs of once having some sort of large machine placed on it. Buffy could see the indentations in the ground where something big and heavy had been placed there; from the marks on the ground it looked like it must have been about the size of a school bus. Moving on, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, swinging to her right she brought her plasma rifle to bare on a bug. It only took her a second to realise that the bug was long dead, it had been a worker so even if it had been alive it would have been no threat to her.

Walking over to examine the bug's exoskeleton, which was stuck half way through a hedge, Buffy saw that it'd been dead for some time. The local wild life had made short work of its soft tissue. No one knew how long warrior and worker bugs lived. The guess was, 'not very long' and six months to a year was the accepted theory. Having found that the bug was dead and not a threat, Buffy went back to her examination of the clearing. The bugs appeared to have gone to a lot of trouble to do something here and she was wondering what it could have been. It was then that she noticed something odd covering the ground a few yards away from where the end of where the bug machine must have stood.

Walking slowly over to what looked like a huge stain on the ground, Buffy found a pile of...well, she wasn't sure what, it was some kind of waste product, but what sort of waste, she couldn't immediately work out. Casting her eyes over her HUD readouts she saw no warnings for radiation or corrosive chemicals. Moving a little closer, she saw that the local insect and bird equivalents had disturbed the waste so it was probably some sort of bio-waste.

Kneeling down and examining the pieces of what looked like rags mixed in with sharp, white splinters that almost looked like bone, Buffy suddenly realised what the bugs did with the civilian populations when they captured a planet. Fighting to stop herself from throwing up, she stood up and stumbled away from the discarded remains of the people who'd probably lived in the village. As she backed away from the spoil tip, her eyes picked out larger pieces that were recognisable as human bones. A piece of jaw here, a tooth there, a fragment of thigh bone...

Starting to retch uncontrollably, Buffy vomited into her helmet. Almost immediately she could feel hundreds of thousands of nanites start to crawl over her face as they ate up her vomit and started to recycle it. The though of all the microscopic bio-machines crawling over her face and the knowledge of what they were doing almost made her vomit again, but she managed to control her stomach and stopped it from rebelling again.

“Hello Mutt!” Buffy didn't bother with proper comms procedure as she coughed out her report, “This is Snake, urgent, come to my location now, over.”

“On way, out,” Mutt Steiner's voice came back within a second.

Standing and staring at the scene in front of her Buffy tried to piece the clues together as the nanites went about their work, some even crawled into her mouth and up her nose in their quest for pieces vomit. Taking a sip of water, she washed out her mouth and spat out the water, the nanites would soon clean up the new mess.

The imprints in the ground must be from some sort of food processing machine, Buffy told herself. The bugs had likely put it here so the villages wouldn't see it and guess what it was until it was too late, no doubt it was less hassle for the bugs if they didn't have to deal with a bunch of panicking humans. The human food had probably been herded into one end of the food processor, chopped up or whatever and packaged into handy packs, 'prime human burgers' no doubt. The waste, pieces of bone, hair and clothes were then dumped and the bugs moved on to their next target. Hearing movement behind her, Buffy turned and brought up her rifle hoping that it would be a bug for her to kill, but it wasn't, it was Mutt.

“What's the hurry, Snake?” Mutt asked as he walked over to join Buffy, “You found something?”

“Come and look,” Buffy said as she led Mutt over to the pile of human remains.

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

“You feeling okay, Snake?” Mutt Steiner asked; the two soldiers were standing at the edge of the village green watching air-cars from Brigade and Division come and go.

“I'll live,” Buffy replied quietly; she and Mutt had both popped their face plates so they could talk privately and not have to use their comms.

“Gotta say, Snake you're looking a little...” Mutt tried to choose his words carefully, “...green around the gills.”

He failed.

“You're totally not looking so hot yourself,” Buffy replied a little more sharply than she'd intended, “Sorry...I shouldn't have snapped.”

“Don't worry about it,” Mutt replied as they both turned to watch as yet another air car touched down on the green; this time a bunch of civilians climbed out of the car carrying recording equipment.

“News crew?” Buffy observed, “Are they going to release this to the public?”

“Looks like,” Mutt replied, “I was talking to the General's driver, seems like they've been finding evidence like this all over the reclaimed areas, it'd be hard to cover something like this up.”

“Good,” Buffy said emphatically, “maybe it'll shut those assholes up who keep saying that we started the war and we should totally surrender!”

“There's always assholes like that,” Mutt pointed out, “and you never know they might be right.”

“What!?” Buffy turned to stare at Mutt as if he'd started to dance a jig right there on the green.

“Well, look” Mutt sighed, “no one knows why the bugs started this war. Yeah, I know there was tension and some fighting before this all blew up, but no one knows the real reason why.”

Standing there watching all the Brass rush around while the news crew set up their equipment, Buffy found she had no answer to what Mutt had just said; she did know one thing however, she'd not stop killing bugs until there were no more bugs left to kill.

“I threw up in my helmet,” Buffy admitted quietly.

“No wonder you're looking green,” Mutt grinned.

“I don't know which was worse,” Buffy continued as she gestured towards the place where the inhabitants of the village had been killed, “seeing that, or having gazillions of nanites crawl all over my face.”

Mutt came to stand in front of her and crouched down so he could see her face inside her helmet.

“Erm...” Mutt began; Buffy could tell that he was having difficulty holding back his laughter, “...you know how those little bastards eat everything?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy replied suspiciously.

“Sorry to say this, Snake...”

“No you're not, you can hardly stop yourself from laughing,” Buffy growled.

“Sorry Snake,” Mutt had stopped even trying to stop himself from laughing now, “but they've eaten your eyebrows.”

“Oh....” Buffy never got a chance to finish what she was going to say because her comms unit was pinging for attention and by the look on Mutt's face so was his.

Shutting her face plate Buffy studied her HUD for a few seconds, nothing had changed since the last time she'd looked, but there was a warning light flashing to tell her that a drone wanted to download some information.

“Drone, download,” Buffy ordered, she could hear Mutt giving the same order to his suit.

About a second after she'd spoken, new information was downloaded from a recon drone to her HUD. A group of new dots appeared in the north-west quadrant of her face place, they flashed at her redly as she watched them crawl closer.

“Bugs,” Buffy hissed; for a moment she was distracted as the Brass climbed into their air-cars and flew away, “Must be serious,” she commented to Mutt.

“Okay, Scout,” Mutt replied, “you better get out there and earn your pay.”

“Pay?” Buffy asked as she gave her suit a quick check, “We get paid for this? I thought we did it all for fun!”

“On the bounce trooper,” Mutt gestured in the direction of the suspected bugs.

“Okay, okay,” Buffy signed, “no need to act like a Corporal who's bucking for Sergeant!”

“Move it Snake,” Mutt laughed.

“Up, up and AWAAAAAAY!” Buffy cried as she jumped into the air, over rode her jet controls and zoomed off in the general direction of the bugs.

Flying nape of earth towards her target, Buffy wondered what she'd find. Well actually she knew pretty much what she'd find, she'd find bugs. But exactly how many and what they were equipped with she'd have to find out for herself. The recon drones were good, very good in fact, but there was only so much you could put into something that was about the size of a large grape. Ever since she'd arrived in this future she'd had this feeling that after two-hundred years the tech should be better than it was. In general most of what people used was only a little better than what was available back home. Okay, yes there was some really neat stuff but nothing like she'd expected to see, like on Star Trek.

Her arrival near the location of the bug incursion made Buffy stop her musings on modern technology and get on with the job in hand. Grounding herself she checked on the location of the bugs. According to her HUD they were about a thousand yards away over the low ridge in front of her. Running in a crouch, she made her way to the top of the ridge and threw herself down into the long grass, her suit immediately changed colour to match its surrounding. Peering between the stalks of grass she found that at first she couldn't see anything hostile. The bugs had grey bodies and darker grey legs, they were surprisingly difficult to see at long ranges. Dialling up the magnification on her HUD, Buffy gasped as the bugs swam into focus.

“Hello, Five-One, this is Five-Two-Sierra,” Buffy breathed rapidly into her comms unit, “contact, now, my location. Fifty plus bugs heading south-east about one thousand yards north of my grid, am engaging, out!”

With Mutt's order not to engage and let the marauder suits handle it still ringing in her ears, Buffy stepped back from the crest line before kicking in her jets and flying low and fast to her left. The ridge line curved around towards the bugs and she thought she'd be able to use it for cover until she was on the bug's flank. However, she was soon to have a hard lesson on the limitations of recon drones. Gaining altitude a little so she could fly over a line of trees growing in a gully on the side of the ridge, she was surprised to find herself under fire.

Taking frantic evasive action as bug bullets clanged against her suit, Buffy looked down to see twenty or thirty bugs who'd taken shelter in the lee of the trees. Leaving a couple of grenades behind to cover her withdrawal (the MI don't 'retreat' they 'withdraw to prepared positions in order to facilitate an advance in another sector'), Buffy zipped back over the trees and grounded before running down the slope a dozen yards with her plasma rifle at the ready.

Her guess had been right, about a minute after she'd spotted the new group of bugs and after she'd sent in another contact report the first bug smashed through the trees and out into the open. Firing, Buffy took out the bug with a couple of shots, she was getting pretty good at killing bugs without expending too much ammunition. The first bug slumped to the ground just as two more burst from the trees firing their weapons. The bugs of course had no way of knowing where she was so they were firing in the wrong direction, But Buffy certainly knew where the enemy was and took the bugs down with two plasma bolts each to the nerve sack behind the monster's head.

Having killed three bugs from her present position, Buffy used her jets to bounce over the trees and land behind the bugs as they forced their way through the vegetation. Once again her plasma rifle spat blindingly, bright, light and bugs fell, rolling onto their backs and kicking their legs in the air as they died. Jumping again, she let go of her rifle and drew her hand flamer. Setting fire to the trees as she flew over them, she landed on the other side of the gully and watched as burning bugs ran from the holocaust she'd made to die out in the open. After burning down a couple of bugs who'd escaped both her rifle fire and the hell-fire from her flamer, she paused to give Mutt an after action report. Buffy could tell by the tone of Mutt's voice that he was pissed at her for not obeying orders. However, his anger was tempered by the fact that Buffy had taken out a group of bugs that no one had spotted.

“...okay, Five-Two-Sierra,” Mutt's voice once more came to Buffy over her comms, “get back into position where you can observe the first group of bugs...and I mean _observe_ this time, you are _not_ to engage is that understood?”

“Understood, Five-One, I'm moving into position now, over,” Buffy replied as she once more flew towards the ridgeline her feet brushing the tops of the grass as she did so.

“Roger, out,” came Mutt's terse reply.

Coming to the crest of the ridge again, Buffy once again lay down in the grass and picked out the bugs on her HUD. The bugs were closer now and moving across her front, playing the good little scout she reported this fact to Mutt. To tell the truth she'd been a little rattled by bumping into those bugs like she had and decided that for the time being at least she'd do as she was told and follow doctrine.

Catching movement to her right, Buffy turned to observe two marauder suits ground themselves a few hundred yards in front of the bugs. The bugs reacted immediately and formed a firing line sending a hurricane of penetrators towards the marauder suits as they moved to engage the humans. As Buffy reported all this action she noticed that a group of bugs were trying to out flank the troopers below. The route the bugs were taking would bring them within a hundred yards of where she was hiding.

Deciding it was probably best to tell Mutt what she was doing after she'd done it, Buffy pulled her plasma rifle around into the aim and sighted on the bugs closest to her. Firing steadily into the flank of the bug force she was gratified to see them start to fall in smoking heaps of charred flesh and jerking legs. Although the bugs weren't individually intelligent, the warriors at least were hard wired for combat. Turning with frightening speed the surviving bugs spread out and started to fire on Buffy's position churning up the earth all around her and setting fire to the grass.

Deciding that it was time to move, Buffy once again backed off the ridge line, tossing a mental coin in the air and chose to head off to her left again. Hopefully this would bring her out to the flank or rear of the surviving bugs. Keeping low, she flew rapidly along the ridge line. The scout suits were fast, it was just a pity they didn't carry a big enough payload to do a lot of damage when they arrived wherever they were going. Popping up over the crest of the ridge, she found that the bug out flanking force was now over running her previous position. Not bothering to land, Buffy once more pulled her hand flamer and burnt down the bugs as she flew across their rear. The bugs burst into smoky flame as the chemical fire touched their bodies. Writhing about in the grass the bugs slowly shrivelled up and died.

Happy at a job well done, Buffy grounded to watch the two marauder suits down slope from her. The Marauders had destroyed the bugs force completely; bugs don't panic, or retreat, they just keep coming until they win or they all die. Turning away from the fight, Buffy was horrified to come face to mandible with a burning bug that was still advancing intent on killing her. Luckily the burning bug had lost its weapon and was trying to close with her in an attempt to bite her head clean off.

Crying out in surprise and alarm, Buffy jumped backwards away from the smoking horror and activated her flamer as she jumped. This time as the stream of flame from her weapon engulfed the bug, it stopped and shrivelled up into a smoking ball of burnt bug flesh and charred legs. Coming in for a bouncy landing about twenty yards in front of the burning bug, she scanned her surrounding for any more surprises. Seeing nothing about to attack her, she took off again to fly back over the ridge, sending an after action report to Mutt as she did so. From what Buffy could hear over her channel to Mutt, it sounded like he was having problems of his own. Just as she was about to change course and head back to the village to see if she could help out she nearly tumbled out of the air as she received a call from her Battalion Commander no less.

“Hello Five-Two-Sierra, this is Sunray-actual, orders, over,” the Colonel's voice echoed loudly around the inside of Buffy's helmet.

“Five-Two-Sierra, send,” Buffy replied as her mouth went dry; she'd never met the Colonel in command of her battalion, in fact she wasn't even sure who the man was; this thought almost made her crash, this could all be a sneaky bugs trick! “Sunray-actual this is Five-Two-Sierra, authenticate...” two numbers popped up on her HUD right in front of her eyes, “..seven-three, over.”

“Sunray-actual,” the reply came within seconds, “I authenticate, two-eight, over.”

Once again two numbers flashed up on Buffy's HUD.

“Five-Two-Sierra, correct over,” Buffy signed with relief, unless the bugs had broken Federation security codes she was fairly sure she was in fact talking to her Battalion Commander and not some command bug hiding in a hole somewhere.

“Well done trooper,” the Colonels voice sounded pleased at Buffy's actions and she relaxed a little, “now we've got that over with I've got a little job for you...”

0=0=0=0

Skimming the tops of the stalks of grass at high speed, Buffy headed off in a north-easterly direction across the grass dodging between the stands of trees in search of her target. The Colonel had wanted her to investigate reports of a large force of bugs moving south-east about seven miles away. The reason that the Colonel was sending a human scout was because the recon drones sent to take a look all malfunctioned within moments of coming within range of the bug force.

Glancing at her HUD, Buffy noticed that she wasn't getting the sort of input she normally got from her sensors. Obviously the bugs had found a way to either jam or degrade Federation sensors. While this would only be a minor inconvenience in the long term, human tech rapidly nullified any bug advances. In the short term it could be a major problem. If the bugs could move large forces without being detected it could change the face of the entire battle.

Coming into land behind a small hill, Buffy ran up the slope until she came to the military crest and threw herself down into cover. The top of the hill was broken up with boulders and man high bushes, it was a good position. Her suit would camouflage her and its stealth systems would hide her from electronic snooping. Dialling up the magnification on her HUD once again, she scanned the plain in front of her. Instead of seeing a green carpet of grass she saw the plain covered with a grey mass of bugs. Gasping in surprise, Buffy tried to get a read on how many bugs there where out there. After thirty seconds or so of trying to count she gave up and decided there had to be at least twenty-thousand bugs, probably a lot more.

A flash of sunlight on metal drew Buffy's attention to the centre of this vile, heaving, grey, mass. Pushing her HUD's magnification to its limits, Buffy saw something that would give her nightmares in years to come. There moving in the centre of the bugs horde were big metal bugs, they had to be thirty feet tall at least. Although they were machines they moved so smoothly that it was possible to imagine that they were alive. Each of these silver machines had a body, three, great, metal legs and a huge gun-like object sticking out from under large golden 'eyes'. Taking a deep breath to calm her rapidly beating heart, Buffy opened a channel.

“Hello any station, Bravo-Three-Nine,” Buffy used the call-sign for her battalion, as she fought to keep the fear out of her voice, the sight of the metal bugs had really un-nerved her, “this is Bravo-Five-Two-Sierra, contact, now, grid 582-933, bugs, thousands of them...”

Before Buffy could complete her contact report she saw several hundred bugs break away from the main force and start to head towards her.

“Ooooh crap!” Buffy muttered before shouting, “I'M UNDER ATTACK, AM ENGAGING! REQUEST ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT, NOW, OVER!”

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

“Here they come again!” Harmony called over the squawk-net, “As thick as hell and as black as grass!”

Peering over the top of the pile of boulders that Buffy was hiding behind, she saw several hundred bug warriors surge towards her position, firing as they climbed over the piles of their own dead. Suddenly the air above her head was full of bug bullets, individually the bullets weren't much of a threat to a fully armoured trooper, but when they came at you by the bucket load it was only a matter of time before the bugs got lucky.

So far only two troopers had been killed but several more had been injured or had their suits damaged. When the battle had started, Buffy was at first joined by the rest of fifth squad and then as battalion command started to realised what was going on, forth and sixth squads had joined in. Forth squad was the section's heavy weapons squad and it had been their appearance that had held the bugs at bay because the naval bombardment hadn't been as effective as it normally was.

The Ensign in charge of the Naval Fire Support Team had explained that the bugs were jamming the Navy's targeting scanners and the gunners up on their ships couldn't get a clear lock on their targets. The Ensign was trying to 'walk' some rounds onto the bug horde so every few minutes or so a salvo of kinetic bolts would streak down from the sky and blast untold hundreds of bugs into oblivion, unfortunately it was never enough.

Watching from between two boulders, Buffy tried to ignore the bug slugs that hit all around her and chipped the rocks into smaller and smaller pieces; she felt sure that eventually the bugs would blast the rocks away just as they had scorched away all the plant life. Lifting her plasma rifle into a firing position, she centred the aiming 'pipper' on the lead bug and fired. The bug ran right into the stream of super heated plasma she'd directed at it. The creature exploded spraying pieces of itself over its neighbours, who, even if they noticed, didn't give any indication of slowing down.

Quickly shifting her aim, Buffy blasted the legs off a second bug, the bug crashed to the ground but kept on firing even as its comrades climbed over its body in their eagerness to get at the humans. Over to her right she could hear one of the forth squad guys blasting away with a Light Assault Gun. It's one-inch HEAP rounds easily penetrated a bug's hide before exploding and killing the target bug outright. It was rare for a gunner to have to fire twice at the same target.

Even though the MI were slaughtering the bugs by the hundreds the bugs kept on coming hour after hour until the troopers began to start worrying about their weapons overheating. By the time Thule's sun was setting in the west two more MI had been killed giving a total of four dead and seven injured or with damaged suits. The heavy weapons squad were almost out of ammunition and they were having to use their personal weapons to keep the bugs at a distance. The Ensign in charge of the Naval Landing Party had been killed as he tried to adjust the fire of the supporting capital ship in orbit. Fortunately his CPO had managed to get some fire on target and now every few minutes a salvo of kinetic bolts would plough into the surface making the ground shake and throwing up great columns of pulverised earth into the air.

On the plus side, First Section would be at the hill in five or ten minutes with fresh supplies of ammunition, power packs and badly needed go-juice. But reinforcements were still up to ten minutes away and even after the punishment the MI and Navy had given them the bugs seemed as determined as ever to take the hill. Why they wanted to, Buffy couldn't understand, the hill could have been easily bypassed, it was of no real tactical or strategic importance. It was almost as if the bugs were attacking it simply because there were humans on it.

Lying behind her increasingly small pile of boulders, Buffy willed the warning light on her HUD that indicated her rifle was overheating to go out. If it didn't there would be an increasing chance of the weapon malfunctioning or maybe even exploding. If that happened she'd be reduced to throwing rocks at the enemy.

“Snake!”

Buffy turned to she Harmony crawling up the slope to her position.

“Harm,” Buffy smiled even though Harmony couldn't see her face, “it's nice to hear a friendly voice.”

“Totally,” Harmony agreed, “how're you off for ammo?”

“My rifle's overheating and I've got about half a canister of fuel for my flamer, otherwise I'm empty.”

“Here,” Harmony passed Buffy a cylinder of flamer fuel, “sorry it's not more, but hey!” Buffy imagined Harmony smiling brightly behind her face plate. “First section should be here soon with more of the good stuff!”

“Optimistic as ever,” Buffy laughed, she found she could only think good things about this version of Harmony, the girl...no, the young woman was nothing like the vapid tramp she had known in her own past; also there was the whole thing about Harmony not being a vampire which helped a lot.

“Buffy,” there was a definite tremor in Harmony's voice, “I don't mind telling you I'm like, totally scared, I don't want to die...like, a big _no_ to dying is what I say.”

“You're not going to die,” Buffy replied belying her own thoughts on whether she'd see another sunrise, “In a couple of days we'll be up on the 'H' having a laugh about this...”

“Totally?” Harmony asked as she took a look over the top of Buffy's boulder, “AAAGH!” she cried as a bug slug hit her on the side of her helmet and knocked her flying.

“HARMONY!” Buffy cried out in alarm as she crawled over to her friend, cradling Harmony's body in her arms Buffy tried to get to Harmony's medical read outs on the front of her suit; luckily everything showed green. “Harmony?” Buffy called hopefully, “Are you alright in there?”

“Ow!” Harmony's left hand came up and rested on the dent in the side of her helmet, “That hurt...just as well I've totally gotta thick head, right?”

“The thickest,” relieved, Buffy gave Harmony a power armoured hug.

“Hey,” Mutt Steiner's voice came over the squawk-net, “when you two girls have quite finished hugging look to your front somethings happening.”

Disentangling themselves, Buffy and Harmony scrambled back up the slope to see what was going on. Looking out into the gathering dark, at first Buffy could see nothing because her HUD was still on its daylight settings. Now the sun had gone down, she turned first to image intensifier and then to infer-red. As soon as she'd gone to infer-red, Buffy could see the heat signatures of what looked like fresh thousands of bugs massing on the plain below the hill. Just as she was about to report back to Mutt, her scout suit sensors were much better than the ones on Mutt's marauder suit, half a dozen blindingly bright lines streaked down from the heavens and a great section of the bug position exploded into the air.

The salvo from the battleship in orbit had effectively blinded Buffy's systems, seeing nothing but great splodges of colour on her HUD, she cycled through until she came to image intensifier again. Now being able to see a little more clearly, Buffy saw that the battleship's salvo had acted as a sort of staring gun. It was almost as if the entire surface of the plain was moving as the bug warriors advanced towards the MI position.

To her wide, frightened eyes it looked like every bug in the galaxy was coming right at her. No sooner had the bugs started to move that the MI began to fire cutting down swathes of bugs as they trotted ever nearer. Ignoring the still flashing warning light on her rifle, Buffy joined Harmony in shooting into the bug mass.

“TOTALLY GET SOME!” Harmony yelled as she sent streams of plasma bolts towards the enemy, “LIKE, TOTALLY DIE YOU EVIL SPIDER BASTARDS, MUCH!”

“Pour it on guys!” Steiner's voice came over the squawk-net net, “POUR IT ON!”

Dozens, hundreds of bugs must have fallen but still they came on. The warning light on Buffy's rifle flashed faster and faster until eventually the weapon stopped firing. Letting the rifle's tether pull the now useless weapon back into its storage point on the back of her suit, Buffy pulled her flamer and prepared to go down swinging and flaming in true MI style. Beside her Harmony fired relentlessly into the advancing bugs as the air around the two women grew thick with answering slugs. Gasping in horror, Buffy saw Harmony knocked off her feet again. Flying through the air she landed a couple of yards further down the slope. However, before she could get to her friend, Harmony pushed herself to her feet again, staggered a little, walked back up the hill and started to fire once more.

“You okay Harm?” Buffy called.

“Totally,” Harmony laughed a little hysterically as she continued to rain fire and death on the bugs, “TOP...OF...THE...WORLD!”

Unable to fire, the bugs were still too far away for her to use her flamer, Buffy watched as another salvo of shots rained down from the sky to tear into the bug ranks. In the light of their passing Buffy saw a new threat as they approached, stalking over the running bug warriors came the war machines. So far the bugs hadn't sent any of these three legged monsters towards the MI on the hill, but now it seemed their priorities had changed. 

Immediately the MI fire shifted to the war machines, this let the bug warriors off the hook and allowed them to advance. If the MI fired at the warriors the machines were able to advance, a perfect example of armour/infantry co-operation. A stream of plasma bolts caught one of the machines in its 'eyes' shattering the glass-like material and causing the machine to spin out of control and crash killing dozens of warriors in their packed ranks. As if in retaliation for the death of their fellow machine the other bug war machines fired simultaneously.

The hill seemed to explode and Buffy found herself being tossed through the air like she was a doll being thrown about by a petulant child. Coming to a halt, she shook her head to clear it of the little stars and blue birds that had some how found their way into her helmet. Climbing groggily to her feet, she was just in time to burn down a warrior who was coming at her firing wildly as it did so. The bug exploded into a ball of smoky flame. Shaking her head again to try and clear it some more, Buffy looked around. At first she thought she was the only MI left alive, but here and there she could see lumps in the ground start to move revealing other troopers who were digging themselves out.

Just as Buffy was telling herself that things could be worse; things got worse. The foot of one of the war machines appeared out of the night sky in front of her. Looking up she saw the bug machine looming over her its weapon swinging ominously from left and right as it searched for new targets. Reaching for her plasma rifle in the hopes that it might work long enough for her to take this thing down, her questing hand came up empty, she must have lost her weapon.

Looking at her flamer, Buffy knew it was useless to even think of taking the monster machine on with it. Eyeing the fuel state for her jet pack, she saw that it was well into the red, but there was still plenty of fuel for what she had planned; all these thoughts went through her head in about half a second, now it was time to act. Jumping upwards, Buffy kicked in her jets and flew up the line of the machine's leg. Coming to its body she landed on top of its casing and held on with a death grip so she wouldn't be thrown off.

From her new vantage point she could see the bug warriors and machines advance over second sections positions. The bugs had broken through, it had taken them thousands of casualties but they'd smashed through the MI line eventually. As if in a dream, she could hear Mutt's voice calling in a salvo on his own position, in a minute or two everything, bug or Human on top of the hill would be dead. But that still gave Buffy a minute or two to complete her attack.

Crawling across the top of the bug machine, Buffy got to its 'eyes'. Holding on with one arm she lifted her right fist and punched the machine in its eye. The golden material shattered like crystal; screaming in pain Buffy pulled her hand from the hole in the eye. The force of her blow had not only broken every bone in her right hand and probably a few in her arm, it had also seriously damaged the right arm of her suit. Taking her flamer in her left hand Buffy thrust the muzzle of the weapon into the hole she'd made and fired. Hot flame washed over her suit as fire escaped from every vent and hole in the body of the machine. Buffy could feel its legs begin to buckle and collapse as the machine started to topple towards the ground.

Moments later the world exploded around Buffy and darkness overcame her senses.

0=0=0=0

When she woke up, Buffy wondered for a moment whether all her adventures in the future had been a dream. Maybe she'd died jumping from Glory's tower and she was now dead in her coffin back on Earth in Sunnydale.

“Buffy?” the sound of Harmony's voice chased all those thoughts and fears away, “Are you awake?”

Opening her eyes, Buffy found herself lying in a cot, complete with crisp white sheets and snug blankets. Her head was cradled by soft pillows, there was a drip in her left arm and her right arm was in a cast from her shoulder on down to and covering her fingers. Feeling warm and safe, she was happy to be alive.

“Buffy?” Harmony called again as her face swam into focus above Buffy's bed.

“Harmony,” Buffy croaked, “W-where am I?”

“Thulian MASH unit,” Harmony replied as she gently lifted Buffy's head and helped her drink some water from a plastic beaker, “You've been totally out of it for like a day or two.”

“Did we win?” Buffy asked weakly having drunk her fill.

“Oh sure!” Harmony laughed, “We totally kicked their scanky bug asses.”

“Are you hurt?” Buffy looked at her friend, the other blonde didn't look injured.

“Not a scratch,” Harmony informed Buffy with a grin, “a few bruises and maybe a slight concussion, but otherwise I'm totally okay...y'know I'm seriously beginning to think that I'm like, totally indestructible or something,” Harmony shrugged, “whatever. Enough about me what about you?” 

“My hand?” Buffy looked down at the cast.

“Yeah, that,” Harmony frowned, “your suit musta malfunctioned or whatever, anyway your hand's busted up pretty good, and you've fractured a couple of bones in your arm, but the Doc says it'll heal up okay,” Harmony smiled encouragingly, “You'll be back on the 'H' in a couple of days...”

“Okay,” Buffy was feeling more awake now that she'd had some water, she listened as Harmony chattered on; the sound of the other girl's voice was like an anchor that was preventing her from being swept away in the storm of her life. “What happened?”

Lying back on her pillows, Buffy let Harmony's voice wash over her as she prattled on, this had to be the strangest after action report that Buffy had ever heard; not for its content but for the way it was delivered.

From what Buffy could understand from Harmony's rather fractured and confused account, the bug High Command on Thule had quickly worked out what the human forces were trying to do. Instead of trying to fight a battle on two fronts while their nests were being destroyed, the bug commanders had left a rearguard to face the Thulian counter offensive and retreated towards their nests. Only to collide with the MI blocking force.

As the battle developed from a series of scattered meeting engagement into a major battle with the bugs trying to break through the MI lines to their nests. The Bug Commanders must have decided that the battle was already lost. They'd lost control of the space around Thule and it was only a matter of time before the MI hemmed them in and the Navy pounded them to dust. It was at this point that the Bug commanders deserted their troops and left the planet, but not before they'd programmed their forces to attack and continue to attack the humans on Thule.

This was the attack that she had bumped into when the Colonel had asked her to investigate bug movement. While Buffy had been starting that battle the bug leadership was getting ready to leave. By the time the bugs committed their war machines (it had been discovered that the machines carried the bug jamming devices; when they were destroyed the Navy had a clear shot at the surviving bug warriors) the battle was all but over. Of course it hadn't looked that way from where Buffy and her fellow MI had been standing...or lying.

As the Navy wiped out everything on the hill (it was already being called, The Battle of Buffy's Hill) Thulian Bolos had wiped out the bug rearguard and were smashing into the bug rear. Seconds after the Naval bombardment was lifted, first section arrived, beat back the surviving bugs and rescued the survivors of second section.

Casualties were heavy in second section with seventy-five percent of the force either killed or wounded. They'd be needing a lot of replacements before, 1st Platoon, 'B' Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Mobile Infantry Division', aka 'The Marauders', would be ready to kick bug butt again.

“And you know what the best thing is?” Harmony asked breathlessly.

“No, Harm,” Buffy smiled up at Harmony's innocent, eager face, “what's the best thing?”

“We've all got leave...on Earth,” Harmony grinned so hard Buffy was worried the girl's face was going to split in two, “we're all totally heroes an' the Army wants to like, show us off!”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

Sitting in silence at the back of the coach, Buffy and Harmony watched the Californian coast roll by. There weren't many other people on the tour bus and while some tried to ignore the two blonde MI girls, others stared openly as if these two young women were some sort of exotic exhibit in a zoo or museum; both Buffy and Harmony were used to this by now, they were famous. A couple of days after waking up in the Thulian field hospital, the Thulians released Buffy back to the Federation Army. The Army transferred her to a Navy hospital ship where she met up with Harmony again. It appeared that the Army wanted to use the two women in a publicity drive to recruit more women into the Army and particularly into the Mobile Infantry.

The journey back to Earth took almost four weeks, even with Cherenkov Drives stars were a long way apart and the hospital ship wasn't in any great hurry to get anywhere. The journey, however, gave Buffy time to fully heal and grow back her eyebrows. Once back on Earth they came under the command of a female captain from Army Public Affairs, who acted as their manager come chaperone come commanding officer. It was not so much that the Army pressured them into doing anything, the Army just acted as if neither Buffy or Harmony would have any objections, which neither of them did. They'd both been soldiers long enough for them to see an opportunity for 'easy duty' when it presented itself.

As soon as they got back to Earth the two young women began their program of public appearances. There were chat shows were they were asked stupid questions by overly made up, bottle blonde, bimbos who'd not been picked for their ability to carry out incisive interviews. On one occasion Buffy did find herself on a chat show where the host did ask some hard questions and appeared to be suggesting that Buffy and Harmony were little more than 'sex-workers' put aboard ships for the entertainment of the male soldiers. In reply, Buffy went on the counter attack; first she asked the female interviewer if she had anything against 'sex workers'. Next, she verbally ripped the overly made up bitch a new one, leaving her speechless and wondering if it had been her who'd been ambushed by the Army when it was supposed to be the other way around.

Later they both went on visits to the factories that produced their suits and weapons. The robots that worked on the assembly lines didn't appear to need to have their motivation boosted; they just kept working away, mindlessly producing guns and armour twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. However, the human workers seemed to enjoy being visited by the people who actually used the equipment that they designed and built. Buffy and Harmony even went to visit the company that made the nanite impregnated body suits they worn under their armour. It was as a result of an after hours party when Buffy had explained how she'd lost her eyebrows that several months later she received a notification of a rather large sum of money that had been deposited into her bank account. It appeared that the company that produced the nanite suits had never realised that their product had a more peaceful application. Only a couple of months after Buffy's visit the company opened up its 'Feminine Beauty and Hygiene' subdivision. The money had been a sort of 'thank-you' for giving them the idea. It also came with an offer of a job promoting their products if Buffy ever felt that she wanted to leave the army in the next two or three years; because the company obviously thought she was worth it.

0=0=0=0

Eventually the public lost interest in the two blonde girls who'd almost been killed defending a planet that most people had never even heard of. So after slightly more than two weeks and over ten-thousand proposals of marriage (each), Buffy and Harmony were told that their services were no longer required and they were on leave for the next fourteen days. When their leave was over they were to report to the closest Federal Building to be reassigned.

Before leaving them to enjoy their vacation, the Public Affairs Officer had asked them if they wanted to visit Sunnydale. Of course both Buffy and Harmony had said yes, so the Captain had arranged for them to join one of the tours that took the curious (and ghoulish) around Sunnydale Crater and the remains of the few building that had been left standing after the Bug attack.

The rock that the Bugs had used in their attempted to flatten LA had actually exploded when it hit Earth's atmosphere, the Navy was still trying to work out why exactly this had happened. Their best guess so far was that there was some weakness in the meteor itself. Whatever the reason the rock broke up, most of it fell to Earth and landed harmlessly far out in the Pacific or hit the desert. Unfortunately the nickel-iron core kept boring in and hit the sea just off Sunnydale. The meteor blasted a crater that destroyed all of central Sunnydale, anything that wasn't destroyed outright was flattened by the blast wave. As the rock hit at about 4 o'clock in the morning most of the town's inhabitants were in their beds where they died almost without realising what had happened. Captain Rodriguez had been right when she'd said that the casualties had been pretty near one-hundred percent. It seemed now that the only Sunnydalers who were fortunate enough to still be alive had been out of town that morning. 

The bus stopped in a parking lot next to a temporary visitor's centre, nothing permanent had been built to mark Sunnydale's passing; after all there were much more famous and important places to have their visitors centres and memorials built first. Once the bus stopped, Buffy and Harmony stood up, pulled there khaki uniform skirts and blouses straight and headed on down the bus towards the exit.

Glancing down as she stepped off the bus onto the dusty parking lot, Buffy caught sight of the medal ribbon for her Silver Star that she'd won for taking out the Bug war machine single handed, it sat there next to her Klendathu ribbon, her Military Cross ribbon and the Thule Campaign ribbon; she also had a new 'wound star' on the cuff of the short sleeved blouse she was wearing. Harmony also had a Military Cross now to go along with her campaign medal. They'd both been promoted one grade which Buffy at least felt was more of a tangible reward for her actions on Thule, it meant she was paid more now, so she could enjoy herself more when she was on leave.

Putting their berets on (they'd both need to get their hair cut before they got reassigned, the Public Affairs people had told them to let their hair grow to project a softer image) they both looked around but saw nothing that would suggest that they were standing within a few hundred yards of their shattered hometown. Joining a group of tourists, Buffy and Harmony where led through a thick stand of newly planted trees. Once out of the trees they got their first glimpse of Sunnydale.

While Buffy had been living in Sunnydale and on the Hellmouth she'd cursed the town and had often sworn that if she survived and got to leave, she'd never come back. Now as she looked out over Sunnydale Crater she couldn't help remembering the life she'd lived there with her Mom, sister and friends. Remembering all the fun things they'd done together and there had been fun times; it hadn't all been about monsters, she couldn't help but weep for the town that hadn't quite been her home. The version of Sunnydale that the Bugs had destroyed wasn't the Sunnydale she knew, it hadn't deserved what had happened to it. Turning away from the crater's edge she hugged Harmony.

“Hey!” Harmony cried out in surprise, “Not so tight!”

“Sorry,” Buffy sniffed as she searched for a tissue in her army issue shoulder bag so she could wipe her eyes.

“What was that for?” Harmony asked as she handed Buffy a tissue from her own bag.

“I just needed to hold someone,” Buffy admitted, “and you were sorta close so I thought...you don't mind do you?”

“No,” Harmony shook her head, “it's totally okay and I sorta like understand how you must feel, your mom and sister are down there somewhere,” Harmony gestured to the hole, “my folks are still in Detroit and...” a loud sob cut off Harmony's words as the tears started to roll down her face, “...oh Buffy I'm so lonely...”

“Me too,” Buffy cried as the two young woman held on to each other for mutual support and comfort.

“Everything alright here?” came a familiar voice.

Looking up from where her head had been resting against Harmony's, Buffy caught sight of a naval officer standing a couple of yards away. Pushing herself away from Harmony, Buffy wiped at her eyes quickly and pulled herself to attention before saluting.

“Yes thank-you, Ma'am,” Buffy felt she needed to explain her actions, “you see we're both from Sunnydale and...and...Cordelia?”

“Ensign Cordelia Chase,” Cordy returned Buffy's salute, before smiling and adding “and don't you forget it!” Cordy stepped forward and embraced her two oldest friends, “I've missed you guys...”

0=0=0=0

The three young women spent the rest of the day and most of the next catching up. Eventually Cordy said she had to get back to her ship, a newly commissioned Star Cruiser. After a tearful parting at LA Space Port the three young women went their separate ways; Cordy went back up to her ship, Harmony went to visit some relations that lived in San Francisco and Buffy wanted to try and find her sister. Against all the evidence, she still couldn't believe that Dawn was dead, she had to find out for sure. Before parting, Buffy promised to meet Harmony in San Francisco a few days before their leave was up so they could have a good time before they returned to the Army and the war.

0=0=0=0

Lifting her hand, Buffy knocked on the door and waited to be granted access. Three days ago, Harmony and herself had completed their leave and reported to the Federal Building in San Francisco. Once they'd reported back they were told that the next shuttle up to Gateway Station wouldn't be for three or four days. With the war still raging navy shuttles had more important things to do than pick up two junior Mobile Infantry NCOs even if they were famous.

Each morning Buffy and Harmony would report to the military section of the building and be told no one wanted them to do anything or that there was no shuttle available to pick them up. This suited them fine, because as they had no duties they were left to do very much as they pleased as long as they were back in the building's small barracks by lights out every night.

However, on the forth morning when Buffy and Harmony had reported to the Staff Sergeant who ran the military section, Buffy was told to report to a Major MacKenzie (MI Ret), in the Military Personnel Section at ten-hundred hours. This was how Buffy found herself dressed in her best khakis knocking on the door to the office of an officer she'd never heard of and didn't know why he wanted to see her.

“Come!” called a voice from the other side of the door.

Opening the door Buffy stepped into the office, after closing the door she stepped up to stand in front of the officer's desk. Coming to attention she gave the man a crisp salute. Glancing up from his computer screen Major MacKenzie returned her salute.

“Ah, Corporal Summers,” MacKenzie; a man with almost white hair gestured to a chair placed against the wall behind the door, “Pull up a chair, sit down and relax you're not in any trouble,” the Major smiled as he watched Buffy get comfortable, “in fact quite the opposite.” Mackenzie glanced at his computer screen once more before speaking again, “How long have you been in the MI now?”

“Just over two years now, Sir maybe a little longer,” Buffy replied knowing that the Major knew perfectly well how long she'd been in the Army, his question was just a gambit to get her talking.

“It's thirty months and a few days, to be more precise,” MacKenzie pointed out, “and you're already a Corporal, normally that would take three to six years...”

“Yes Sir,” Buffy agreed as she started to wish the officer would get to his point, but Corporals didn't try to hurry Majors up, not even retired ones.

“...but with the war and so on promotions are coming around faster than they did in my day...” MacKenzie looked Buffy in the eye and smiled, “...not that that's such a bad thing...especially in your case, have you ever considered going 'Career' Corporal?”

“Sir?” Buffy frowned; when someone joined up for Federal Service, particularly in the Military branches, you signed on for either a 'Term' (usually accepted to be three years, or as long as the Federation needed you) or you could go 'Career', which could be as long as twenty-five years.

Buffy hadn't really considered going career, but the pay was better and the prospects of promotion were greatly enhanced. With the war in full swing she was unlikely to finish her 'term' any time soon...unless she bought some agricultural land on her next tour of duty.

“I ask because you seem to be doing very well in the military,” MacKenzie glanced at Buffy's medal ribbons and Corporal's stripes again, “very well indeed. You're the sort of person that the Army needs and I think I can safely say that if you were to go Career that the sky would be the limit as far as promotions went, of course I can't give you a cast iron guarantee, but...”

“Erm,” Buffy replied hesitantly; she wasn't sure what to do, but one thing was for certain there weren't many people being demobilised when their three years were up, plus the war didn't look like it would end any time soon, so, maybe... “Do I have to make my mind up right now, Sir?”

“No Corporal Summers, you don't,” MacKenzie reached into a draw and pulled out a document and placed it on his desk in front of her, “this is your request to go career papers, they're all filled in and all you have to do is sign next to the 'X' at the bottom.”

“Yes Sir,” Buffy said quietly as she ran her eyes over the form.

“You take a little while to think about it Corporal Summers,” MacKenzie nodded, “but don't leave it too long you're not the only up and coming female NCO in the Army.”

Ah, Buffy almost exclaimed out loud, that she saw what was going on here; the army wanted more women in positions of authority in the MI. Knowing the MI like she did they weren't likely to lower their standards just so a relatively inexperienced woman could be promoted. Without being immodest, Buffy knew she was good at her job and lucky, the army was willing to push her along her career path and as a result tap into the large reserve of 'manpower' represented by the women of Earth. The best way to get women to enlist, or so the army thinking probably went, was to be able to show that women could go as far as their male colleagues.

“Right, while you think about that,” Major MacKenzie interrupted Buffy's train of thought, “I'm pleased to tell you that your orders have come through.”

“They have Sir?” Buffy was starting to feel a little forgotten about here in San Francisco.

“Yes they have,” MacKenzie smiled, “You and Lance Corporal Kendal are to proceed to Gateway Station where you will join the newly commissioned TFCT H Jones 'A'. Once aboard you will take command of 1st Platoon's Fifth Squad with Lance Corporal Kendal as your Assistant Squad Leader.”

“Wow,” Buffy breathed.

“Wow indeed, Corporal,” MacKenzie smiled as he stood up and held out his hand to Buffy, “there'll be one or two other surprises for you on the Jones...”

“There will?” Buffy asked as she got to her feet and shook the Major's hand before saluting.

“Indeed, but I'll let you find those out by yourself,” Mackenzie returned Buffy salute, “it just leaves me to wish you, good luck and good hunting, Corporal Summers.”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

Gateway Station was the largest and oldest of Earth's orbital space ports. It'd started out as a purely military station, but over the years civilian corporations had been allowed to at first use the facilities offered by the station and then they'd been allowed to build their own additions. Over the years the station had expanded without very much in the way of planning until it looked like a huge pile of junk floating above the Earth.

When Buffy and Harmony arrived at Gateway on the shuttle from San Francisco they disembarked at the 'Space America' terminal from where they made their way to the military section of the station. Reporting in they were told to wait while the sergeant on duty tried to find out where they were supposed to go. Luckily it only took him about five minutes and very soon Buffy and Harmony were on their way to the naval dockyard section of the station. 

Finding themselves walking along a wide, brightly lit corridor which had doors leading to offices on one side and large windows on the other, Buffy happened to glance outside at the warships docked on the docking ring high above the level of the corridor. Coming to a halt, she walked over to the window and stared out into the void. There below her was the Earth, a great blue, white and green globe floating in space as it continued its never ending journey around the Sun.

Above her was the sleek, white shape of one of the Navy's new Corvette Transports. Letting her eyes run over the vessel, Buffy saw the three tubes in the craft's belly from which her cap-troopers and their capsules would be fired. Shifting her gaze a little she could just see the turrets for one of the triple twelve inch mass drivers which were the corvette's main armament and the weapons that would be used to support any landing force launched by the ship. Staring at the great ship, she noticed other things; communication arrays, point defence weapons, shuttle bays, air locks, but she couldn't see the craft's name or pennant number.

The army favoured the corvette classes of ship as it gave them more flexibility than larger ships did; plus if the ship was hit and destroyed it meant that the army only lost one platoon of valuable Mobile Infantry. However, the navy preferred larger ships. With all the automated systems used aboard modern starships the number of crew needed to operate a corvette was only a few less than for the much larger battalion and regimental sized star cruiser transports. Of course the navy was in love with big ships so there was a continuing fight between the navy and the army as to what type of ship was built.

“Wow...” Buffy breathed softly as she looked up at the underside of the ship.

“Awesome,” Harmony agreed as she came over to see what had got Buffy so interested, “do you think that's like, ours?”

“No way,” Buffy laughed as she shook her head, “we'd never be that lucky to get a berth on something like that.”

“They did say we were going aboard the _new_ ,” Harmony stressed the word, “H Jones.”

“Yeah but they couldn't have meant anything as way cool as that,” Buffy gestured to the ship that hung like a gigantic, white, whale above her, “This so-called 'new' H Jones is probably some reconditioned fifty year old rust bucket.”

“You mean totally like the old H Jones?” Harmony asked as her face fell in disappointment.

“Oh well,” Buffy shrugged before hefting her kit bag up onto her shoulder, “we better go report in.”

“Yeah,” Harmony swung her own kit bag up onto her shoulder and said without any great enthusiasm, “I suppose we better.”

The corridor had a slight curve to the right so as the girls walked along they noticed that the big corvette they'd been admiring appeared to be the only vessel of its type in dock. Further along the ring they could see a battlecruiser and a couple of frigates, floating near the station they also saw the vast bulk of a space fighter carrier, but there were no more corvette transports.

“Maybe our ship is on the other side of the ring or something,” Harmony suggested as they got closer to the shiny new corvette.

“You know, Harm,” Buffy pointed to an electronic sign post above their heads, “I think for once we've lucked out.”

“You do?” Harmony looked up to study the sign herself, she gasped in surprise, “Wow...”

Following the signs, Buffy and Harmony soon found themselves in the main air lock of the H Jones. Stepping aboard they saluted the Federation flag that hung on the bulkhead facing the air lock and then turned to salute the ships name plaque. Once these formalities were completed, Buffy took her own and Harmony's orders and presented them to the MI PFC who was manning the air lock.

“Career Corporal Summers and Career Lance Corporal Kendal reporting aboard,” Buffy announced as she handed over both her and Harmony's orders cards to the sceptical looking trooper, he wasn't a man Buffy recognised, he must be a replacement, she told herself.

“Erm...” the PFC put the order cards in his reader and didn't appear to believe what the reader was telling him, “...I'm sorry ma'am but...”

“The proper form of address is 'Corporal',” Buffy informed the man stiffly, “is there a problem?”

“Well...erm...'Corporal',” the trooper hesitated, “it says here that you're to take command of fifth squad, but that can't be right.”

“Right,” Buffy said from beneath eyebrows that had drawn together in annoyance, “I'm guessing you're a transfer from a unit that didn't have any female MI aboard, am I right?”

“Erm...yes ma'am...I mean Corporal,” the PFC handed back Buffy's and Harmony's order cards.

“Word of advice trooper,” Buffy stepped up close to the soldier and looked up his nose belligerently, “if you're in fifth squad you'd better transfer out if you know what's good for you...I won't stand in your way....”

“Any problem here?” a familiar sounding voice came from behind Buffy.

Turning quickly, Buffy saw Mutt Steiner standing only a few feet away.

“MUTT!” Buffy cried happily as she bounced over and hugged her old squad leader.

“Snake Summers!” Mutt laughed, “I heard you were dead!”

“Take more than a few thousand bugs to kill me,” Buffy pointed out.

“Corporal Steiner,” Harmony said a little more formally than Buffy had greeted their ex-squad leader.

“Harmony...Harm,” Steiner stepped over to Harmony and gave her a friendly hug, “good to have you back...and what are you staring at trooper?”

“Nothing, Corporal,” the PFC straightened to attention and started to take a deep interest in the bulkhead above his head.

“Damn newbies,” Mutt muttered, “guy calls himself a PFC but he's hardly dry behind the years,” he shook his head sadly, “I blame the war, you know?”

“Whatever,” Buffy shrugged, “any more of the old gang aboard.”

“Most of first section's the same,” Mutt explained as he led Buffy and Harmony along the passageway towards the MI part of the ship, “Sergeant O'Connor is still Papa Sierra, but we're expecting a new officer some time today. Coxy is now squad leader of sixth squad with Gun as his assistant...and I'm assistant section leader.”

“Cool,” Buffy smiled and hugged Mutt again, “like that'll make things interesting, but from what I remember Coxy didn't want the responsibility.”

“Well you know what they say,” Mutt continued, “some have responsibility thrust upon them...forth squad's all new too.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Buffy said soberly; she'd lost a lot of mates on Thule one way or another, “so who do I get in my squad apart from Harm?”

“Oh you'll love this,” Mutt smiled evilly, “you've got six new boots, they're all so new they're still shiny!”

“Oh fantastic,” Buffy replied without any great enthusiasm as she cast Harmony a despairing look, “I don't suppose we've got enough time before we boost out of here so I can take them out to the Moon and see if they're going to get me an' Harm killed?”

“You'd never be so lucky, Snake,” Mutt stopped and gestured to a hatch to his left, “your new home, you an' Harm have about an hour to settle in before your squad arrives and spoils everything.”

“Thanks for nothing,” Buffy replied lightly as she hit the hatch's quick release.

“Anytime,” Mutt called over his shoulder as he made his way deeper into MI territory.

“Okay,” Buffy turned to look at Harmony, “lets see what we've got.”

0=0=0=0

“Wow...” Buffy said after she'd climbed through the hatch and stood gazing in wonder at her new home.

“Wow...” Harmony agreed breathlessly.

Their new squad bay, was about a third larger than the squad bay on the old 'H'. It was sparkling white and had that fresh, new starship smell that you only ever got on ships that came straight from the yards. The bunks, while still arranged in banks of two where larger and the space between them didn't look as claustrophobic as the old style racks. The common area by the door was larger and had its own entertainment unit and privacy shield; this would effectively cut off the area from the rest of the compartment.

Moving slowly along the bay, Buffy admired how wide the companion way was between the banks of bunks and how big the lockers and storage draws were. After passing three banks of bunks, one on the starboard side of the bay and two on the port, Buffy found an alcove set slightly apart from the other bucks. The top bunk was labelled 'Squad Leader' while the bottom bunk had 'Assistant Squad Leader' printed next it.

“Looks like we've got semi-private bunks Harm,” Buffy looked around to find that Harmony had disappeared, “Harm?” Buffy called, “Harmony?” she called again when she got no answer.

“B-Buffy!” Harmony's head appeared around the door to where the freshers should be, “You've totally gotta come and look at this!”

“What's wrong?” Buffy asked as she headed in Harmony's direction.

Following Harmony into the fresher, Buffy stood stunned as she crossed the threshold.

“Wow...” she said quietly.

“Are you sure we didn't make a wrong turn somewhere and like ended up in officer's country?” Harmony asked concerned that the ship's captain would magically appear in the fresher and demand to know what two MI were doing in her bathroom.

“Wow...” Buffy repeated; it had to be admitted that the fresher was of a standard higher than anything even Captain Rodriguez had had aboard the old 'H'.

Again everything was sparkling white, there were two heads...in their own cubicles! On the old 'H' if you wanted to take a leak in the middle of the night you had to accept the possibility that someone might come in and join you. About the only concession to Buffy being a girl on the old 'H' was that no one joined her while she was using the head. There were also two showers, again in their own cubicles, plus wash basins, mirrors and a couple of things Buffy didn't recognise but she was sure she'd work out what they were for eventually.

The two young women turned to each other and said, “Wow...” very softly.

“Come on Harm,” Buffy said after a few moments had passed by, “we better get ourselves squared away before the rest of the squad arrives.”

“Yeah, right...” Harmony still sounded a little stunned by all that she'd seen, “...are you sure we've not got on a luxury liner by mistake?”

“Sure,” Buffy grinned as she led the way back to their bunks, “of course we might be dreaming and any minute now we'll wake up aboard the old 'H'.”

Both of them waited expectantly for a few seconds to see if they would actually wake up and find that this was all a dream. When nothing changed, Buffy shrugged before emptying the contents of her kit bag onto the spotlessly clean floor and began to stow away her gear in her spacious new locker and storage drawers.

“Yeah,” Harmony agreed after a few more seconds, “its really, totally, like real...much!”

0=0=0=0

It took Buffy and Harmony about ten minutes to stow away their gear, long practice at packing and unpacking, plus the fact they hadn't got much to unpack anyway, meant they were experts at moving in or out of a bunk in a relatively short period. They were just wondering if they had the time to find the galley and grab a hot beverage before their squad arrived when the soft ping of a wall mounted comms unit broke their concentration. Buffy and Harmony looked at each other in panic for about two seconds before frantically trying to find the comms unit. Just as Buffy was thinking that she'd never find the thing, she saw a small red light flashing above her bed. Climbing up into her bunk she found a comms unit attached to the wall next to where her head would be if she was in her rack.

“Corporal Summers, here,” Buffy said as she pressed the 'acknowledge' button.

“Main air lock here,” Buffy recognised the voice of the PFC who'd 'welcomed' herself and Harmony aboard, the man sounded nervous, “Erm...I've got your squad here...erm... shall I send them down to you or do you want to collect them?”

“Send 'em on down, trooper,” Buffy replied as she rolled her eyes at Harmony who was standing listening to the conversation.

“Erm...if you don't mind me saying, Corporal,” the PFC continued slowly, “you might wanna send someone up to collect them.”

“Yeah right, of course,” Buffy agreed, “they're all Boots, right?”

“Something like that, Corporal,” acknowledged the PFC before signing off.

“Harm,” Buffy grinned down at Harmony, “our guys have arrived, be a buddy and collect them from the main airlock would you?”

“Like, no problemo, Boss,” Harmony sketched a comedy salute before straightening her khakis and heading on out the hatch.

Jumping down from her bunk, Buffy straightened her own uniform before checking that everything in the bay was neatly squared away. In her NCO's handbook, it said that when taking over a new squad it was important to start as you meant to go on. While Buffy had no intention of being a 'hard-ass', she wouldn't be too upset if her squad was the best in the platoon. So, she had decided on starting out by being firm but fair, she'd keep this up until she found out what her squad was like and either relax a little or come down on them like the side of a mountain.

Positioning herself where everyone could see her, Buffy next started to worry about what her first words should be to her new squad, again first impressions counted. A simple, 'Hi I'm Buffy' was probably too informal and wouldn't reinforce her status as squad leader. On the other hand going the other way and saying something like, 'My name's Summers, Snake Summers...I make MI out of scum like you', was probably going a little too far the other way.

Standing there waiting for her squad to turn up, Buffy tried to come up with something that gave just the right balance of hard-ass MI corporal and friendly, sisterly Buffy. Thinking back to her old squad, Buffy remembered that the guys had liked to think of her as a sort of dangerous little sister. Yes, she thought, that was probably the way to go, act the dangerous 'big' sister, that would probably get her guys over the shock of having two female NCOs.

No sooner had these thoughts cleared Buffy's mind that Harmony climbed through the hatch and stood for a moment looking at Buffy in shock. After checking that all her buttons and zips were done up, Buffy mouthed 'What?' at Harmony. The only answer that Harmony gave was a shrug before she stepped aside and gestured for the troops behind her to enter the squad bay. Buffy's own mouth dropped open as she watched her new squad climb through the hatch, dump their kit bags in the common area and form up in a little, nervous, knot at the opposite end of the bay.

“Oh boy...” Buffy breathed quietly as she realised what had been done to her.

0=0=0=0


	18. Chapter 18

18.

“They're all girls,” Buffy said with just a tinge of regret as she walked into the platoon sergeant's cabin-come-office.

“W-what!?” Sandy O'Connor looked up from his computer screen to stare at the young woman who had just burst into his cabin/office and spoiled his concentration.

“My Squad, Sandy,” now Buffy was a full corporal, she could call Ship's Sergeant O'Connor by his first name on non-public occasions, “they're all girls and Boots...what's going on?”

“I thought you'd be pleased,” sitting back in his seat, O'Connor smiled up at his annoyed fifth squad leader, he rested his hands across his stomach and smiled like a rather tall leprechaun.

“Okay,” Buffy calmed down a little as she sat in the chair that O'Connor had gestured to, “maybe I am 'pleased', as you put it, but so many girls and all at once? I repeat what's going on?”

Leaning forward, O'Connor rested his hands on his cluttered little desk and looked Buffy in the eye for a second or two before speaking again.

“New directive from the Brass,” O'Connor explained without really explaining.

“Huh?” Buffy replied none the wiser.

“Look,” O'Connor sighed, “it seems like not all units welcomed their female buddies with such open arms as the Marauders did...” O'Connor paused as a grin spread slowly across his face, “...or maybe they didn't have a replacement quite like you to deal with.” O'Connor shifted in his seat as he watched Buffy slowly cool down, “You know a lot of the reason you got promoted to Corporal so quickly was the way you handled being the only woman in a platoon full of guys...” O'Connor paused again, “...to be honest, Snake, before you joined us your military career was going nowhere.”

“Yeah okay I'm totally great,” Buffy sighed heavily, “but what's with all the girls?”

“It seems,” O'Connor started to explain, “like I say, a lot of units haven't welcomed their female MI with quite the right amount of unrestrained joy and happiness as we did. So, the Brass has decided to only put female replacements into units were the 'experiment' has been successful, its a little like reinforcing success.”

“But that's stupid...” Buffy began only to be interrupted by O'Connor.

“You _did_ hear me say that this was thought up by the Brass, right?”

“Oh yeah, whatever,” Buffy agreed seeing O'Connor's point, “but how do they expect women to be fully integrated into the MI if they only put them into certain units.”

“Between you and me, I don't think they do,” O'Connor replied.

“What?” Buffy gave her Papa Sierra a puzzled frown.

“Look Snake,” O'Connor replied, “you've got to remember that the Top Brass got to where they are today in an MI that didn't have and didn't want women in it. Personally I was right there with them but then you turned up and I sorta changed my mind. However, they didn't want any women in the MI but the decision was taken away from them and the government forced the army to let women in.”

“Bastards,” Buffy muttered angrily.

“Perhaps,” O'Connor agreed unsure whether Buffy was referring to the army or the government or possibly both, “But it still doesn't alter the fact that women were unwelcome, as you've probably noticed.”

Truth to tell, Buffy had noticed that most MI weren't exactly cheering when they saw her coming. Of course she'd worked hard to change those feelings since she'd joined the Marauders and she'd succeeded, up to a point. Now, although some guys still didn't like having women in the platoon they at least kept their misgivings to themselves and respected Buffy for what she had achieved.

“So the Brass have decided to put all their bad apples into one barrel,” Buffy grumbled.

“Sort of,” O'Connor nodded, “there's been talk about forming all female units and you're squad looks like its part of that project.”

“All female units?” Buffy frowned, “I don't think that's such a good idea.”

“And when the Brass starts taking suggestions from very junior corporals I'm sure they'll bear that in mind,” O'Connor laughed, “But until then your squad's going to be all female.”

In a way, Buffy thought, it did make a twisted sort of logic. When it had looked like all the female recruits were going to washout, the training staff had altered the physical requirements for females so at least some would make it through training. This had caused trouble with the male recruits, why should they (they argued) have to do thirty chin-ups when the women only had to do twenty-four?

Eventually, and after Buffy had graduated from Currie, the Brass had got around the problem by building an all female training facility near Camp Currie, called Camp Cavell. This at least cut down on the complaints from the male recruits. After another shaky start Camp Cavell began to send a steady stream of trained female soldiers to front line units...where they generally met the same problems that Buffy had met back in her first unit, 'The Bearcats'.

“Okay,” Buffy admitted reluctantly, “I see, I get it, I don't like it but I'll take it like an MI,” she sighed, “ours is not to reason why an' all that crap.”

“That's what I like to hear,” O'Connor sniggered, “unrestrained enthusiasm!”

“You're enjoying this aren't you?”

“In a way,” O'Connor admitted.

“In a way?”

“Look,” O'Connor lowered his voice to lessen the chance of anyone outside overhearing him, “if this all female units thing goes through, I'm likely to lose one of my best NCOs.”

“What Harmony!?” Buffy said in surprise.

“No!” O'Connor laughed loudly, “You Snake! I mean Harm is a good soldier but anyone can see she's going nowhere but Corporal. She'll retire with a nice pension, marry some guy with the same low tastes as her and have loads of kids as she grows fat and comfortable. You, however,” O'Connor speared Buffy with a steely stare, “are going places...”

“You're the second person to tell me that in the last couple of days,” Buffy admitted; perhaps everyone was right, maybe this was why she'd been pulled through Glory's portal to this future time.

“Then they'd be right,” O'Connor pointed out, “you're good at your job, most people like you and those that don't respect you, I could see you with an officer's commission one day.”

“You can?” Buffy laughed, “No way!”

“Yes-way,” O'Connor replied, “as long as you keep going the way you are and don't buy the farm, one day I'll end up saluting you.”

“No, Sarge that'll never happen.”

“Mark my words, like God, Ship's Sergeant's are seldom wrong,” O'Connor said as his voice became serious, “Now, was there anything else?”

“One thing,” Buffy replied as she got to her feet, “was it anything to do with you that all my squad, except me an' Harm are Irish?”

“Me?” O'Connor tried to look as innocent as he could...and failed, “You think I have the power to influence the placement of new Boots?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded.

“Well, you're sadly mistaken, but your faith in you're old Ship's Sergeant's powers is appreciated,” O'Connor shrugged, “If I were you I'd put it all down to good luck.”

“Good luck?” Buffy's eyebrows rose in surprise and disbelief, “Year, right, whatever.”

“Have fun,” O'Connor called to Buffy's retreating back.

Although O'Connor had nothing but respect for Buffy and Harmony, he also suspected that women would never be accepted in the MI, at least not in his life time. Yes, there were very good arguments on both sides about having, or not having women in the MI. But the truth was that someone like Buffy would never make officer under the present system, however much she deserved it. Okay, some woman would make officer some day soon, but it wouldn't be Buffy and the chances were it wouldn't be someone that he would have chosen. It would be someone with 'connections'.

Yes, the MI was very careful about who got to be an officer, for a start you had to have served as a trooper for at least a year before anyone even considered you as a candidate. But there were more women with a better education than Buffy and he knew that at least one of them was the daughter of a retired General; she'd go to OCS long before Buffy got a look in. It was unfair, but that was life and anyway, Buffy would probably pick up a battlefield commission before too long...either that or she'd buy a farm on some lonely planet. Either way she'd be a shining example to every woman or girl who decided that the Mobile Infantry was for her; perhaps one day there'd even be a 'Camp Buffy Summers'. But until then he'd say good luck to them and he meant it.

0=0=0=0

By the time, Buffy got back to Fifth Squad's squad-bay, Harmony had finished giving the squad its orientation lecture and had shown them around the MI part of the ship.

“Okay, guys,” Harmony was just winding up as Buffy came in through the hatch, “tomorrow we'll totally get you fitted for your suits and issue you with like, your personal weapons...” Harmony noticed Buffy standing just inside the hatch, “...Snake you wanna say anything?”

“Sure, thanks Harm,” Buffy nodded to Harmony as she came to stand in front of the Boots as they sat in the common area, “Okay, for those that don't know it yet I'm you're Squad Leader, Corporal Buffy Summers, when you've been here awhile you'll be able to call me 'Snake'...”

Buffy noticed 'her' girls give each other puzzled looks, no doubt they were trying to work out why she'd been nicknamed 'Snake'. Well, sometimes she wondered herself, but it was something she'd said to her then squad leader which had made him say something else and, 'Hey Presto!' she'd been 'Snake' from that moment onwards.

“...until that happy day arrives its, Corporal Summers, Okay?”

“Yes, Corporal,” the squad replied with sufficient enthusiasm to satisfy Buffy's stripes.

“Corporal Kendal and myself have worked hard to be accepted in what is basically still a man's world here in the Marauders, so I don't want you screwing everything up,” Buffy paused for just a moment, “And talking of screwing...” she cast the squad a grim look, “...you _will not_ , under any circumstances, screw anyone, male or female, who are in the Marauders, or part of the H Jones' ship's company. It's bad for moral and it could get you killed,” Buffy paused to take a deep breath while she gauged the looks on her trooper's faces. “Also, if anyone tries to 'force' themselves on you, you come to me straight away and I'll sort it out, don't you try to get payback on your own, leave it to me...,” Buffy smiled reassuringly, “...that's what Squad Leaders are for...”

Of the old Marauders, Buffy was pretty sure that none of the guys would try to abuse any of her girls. But there were too many replacements, especially in Second Section, for her to be sure of the new guys. Okay, they were all MI and any bad-seeds should have been weeded out in training, but every now and again someone who shouldn't get through got through and what with the war people didn't have as much time as they used to to screen new recruits. Plus boys will be boys in much the same way as girls will be girls.

“Okay,” Buffy glanced at her wrist computer, “it's nearly fifteen-hundred, so if Corporal Kendal has finished with you,” Buffy glanced at Harmony who nodded confirming that she was finished, “I suggest you get changed and spend one last night enjoying the facilities here at wonderful Gateway Station. Don't get drunk and be back here by twenty-three-hundred, remember we boost out at ten-hundred tomorrow, so you probably won't want to be dealing with a hangover...questions?”

“Erm...Corporal?” a girl with dark brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin held up her hand to catch Buffy's attention.

“Yes,” Buffy nodded to the girl, “I'm sorry I don't know all your names yet,” in fact she didn't know any of their names just now.

“Private Finnula McCarthy, Corporal..;” the girl replied helpfully.

As Private McCarthy spoke, Buffy noted that her name would soon be shortened to Fin and she'd probably end up being called 'Shark'.

“...Corporal Kendal showed us around the ship, but she must've left something out.”

Buffy glanced at Harmony who shrugged in reply.

“Unlikely, but what didn't you get to see?” Buffy asked.

“Where are the women's ablutions, Corporal?” Private McCarthy replied in utter confusion.

“Okay...” Buffy hid her own smile as she saw that Harmony was failing to hide hers, “...lets see,” Buffy made a show of sniffing inside her uniform blouse, “I could do with a shower myself. Alright, shower parade in five minutes...” Buffy paused before adding, very quietly to herself, “...towel and flip-flops optional...” seeing that no one had moved, she called out, “Come on people...MOVE! And that includes you Corporal Kendal, fancy not showing them where the 'women's ablutions' are! 

“I know,” Harmony agreed as she came over to join Buffy in their semi-private NCO's alcove, “totally, my bad...” she said before whispering, “...I wouldn't miss this for the world.”

Climbing up into her bunk, Buffy turned to her wall mounted comms unit and keyed in the code for Mutt Steiner and waited for him to answer.

“Steiner,” Steiner's voice came loudly over the comms unit, Buffy turned down the volume so no one else could hear.

“Grab a few of your guys,” Buffy spoke quietly over the connection, “Beauty contested in the showers, five minutes, okay?”

“Roger that,” Steiner replied, “I think I can find half a dozen volunteers from the old Second Section.”

“Cool, see you there,” Buffy replied before breaking the connection.

Quickly stripping off her uniform down to her underwear, Buffy grabbed her towel, soap and shampoo before walking out into the main part of the squad bay. Here she found Harmony and their squad standing dressed only in their underwear and clutching there towels and soap.

“Okay you...you...” for a moment Buffy didn't know what collective noun to give her squad, she eventually went with, “...shower, follow me!”

0=0=0=0

Leading from the front, Buffy got her squad to the main showers without losing any of them and without incident. Instructing the girls to hang up their towels and take off their underwear, she led them into the showers. As the water came on and the girls started to wash, Buffy and Harmony distracted them so they wouldn't notice the seven naked guys sneak into the shower room behind them. It was only when Buffy went to stand between her squad and the 'judges' did they notice the guys watching them from chairs, all were wearing dark glasses and false noses.

What followed was a lot of screaming and a mad dash for the exit which was only blocked after some quick foot work by Buffy and Harmony.

“Okay,” Buffy called as the screams of her squad subsided, “I know this was a cheap shot, but Harm and myself had to go through this by ourselves, think of it as your initiation into the Marauders...you'll also notice that the guys aren't wearing anything and those disguises are totally bogus...” Buffy paused to smile over at Steiner who was sitting at the end of the line of judges, “...so lets get on with this.”

One by one, Buffy instructed her 'Privates'; to walk towards the judges, turn and walk away. As each girl, rejoined her buddies the judges held up their score cards. Buffy noticed that although the judges were giving each girl a high score, the total was lower than either Buffy's or Harmony's scores had been. Obviously the judges had a keen sense of self preservation, Buffy went over to stand next to Steiner; bending down she whispered in his ear.

“Thanks for organising this, what with the short notice an'all,” Buffy stood up as the contest came to an end and the judges left taking their chairs with them, “Maybe we should organise something like this for your new guys.”

“Good idea,” Steiner agreed, “I'll run it past Sandy later tonight, tomorrow evening be okay for you, assuming he agrees?”

“Sure,” Buffy nodded, “I'll arrange it.”

After Steiner had left, Buffy went back to stand in front of her squad as the shower water plastered her short hair to her head.

“Look guys,” she began, “I'm sorry, but you've got to realise that on board ship there can't be men and women. There can't be separate shower times for the different sexes, we're all MI together. So,” she took a deep breath, “finish up here then get dressed and get outta here and enjoy yourselves.” Buffy glanced at Harmony who nodded her agreement. “It'll probably be a long, long time before you get to have any fun off ship...now on the bounce...MOVE!”

0=0=0=0


	19. Chapter 19

19.

Spot on ten-hundred hours, the H Jones uncoupled from Gateway Station and started to move away from both the station and Earth. It would be a couple of hours before Captain Gelson engaged the Cherenkov Drives, there was no urgent rush for the H Jones to be anywhere as the Bugs were still being pretty quiet. The H Jones had been assigned a patrol area, and would be there in a week, in the mean time there was work to be done.

After revallie, showers and breakfast, Buffy held her first squad inspection. Walking along the short line of troopers as they stood to attention, by their racks, Buffy was pleased to note that none of them looked the worse for wear from the night before. The last night ashore was often an excuse for troopers to get extremely drunk, but fifth squad had resisted the temptation to go 'over the top' with their celebrations. The previous night, Buffy and Harmony had gone out to do a little last minute shopping; mostly things like soap, shampoo, cosmetics...batteries, before having a nice meal followed by a couple of beers in a quiet bar. They'd both been back at the ship by twenty-two-thirty in plenty of time to be there when the rest of the squad returned.

After the inspection, during which Buffy tried to match names to faces; she told herself that she really needed to read her girl's records. Next she sent the girls to the armoury to get their suits fitted and after sending Harmony along to make sure no one got lost, Buffy picked up the data cards containing the records of her girls and a reader before heading down to her own part of the armoury (on the new H Jones the armoury contained both the platoon's weapons and armoured suits) there were a lot of new weapons to be checked out and counted. The week the H Jones would take before it reached its assigned patrol sector would simply fly by.

The weapon's armoury was in its own section off the main armoury and Buffy was already counting boxes on grenades when she felt the ship lurch as it moved away from Gateway and went from the station's gravity field to its own. Sensing the slight fluctuations in gravity as the Jones' gravity generators settled down and the ship turned to head out into the solar system, she looked up from her computerized clipboard. Casting her eye over all the boxes of weapons that would need unpacking before she even got down to checking them out; she was beginning to wonder if she'd ever get time to read her squad's records.

“Oh well,” she sighed to herself, “better make a start.”

Lifting the first crate of plasma rifles up onto her work table, Buffy popped the catches that held the lid secure before opening the crate. There, lying in a neat row and held firmly in the box by their packing, were five M5A2 plasma rifles. These weapons were an improved model of the old M5A1s. They had a better targeting scanner, longer range and were less prone to overheating. Smiling, she lifted one up and examined it closely. The weapon was armoured and way too big for her, after all it was designed to be used by someone in a marauder suit, which reminded her she'd need to be fitted for her own suit before the week was out. 

As squad leader she'd had to leave her old scout suit behind. Sometime in the next few days she'd need to be fitted for her new Marauder 'C' suit. This was a version of the normal marauder suit made for squad leaders, it had a little more comms gear than a normal marauder suit. Of course after she'd been fitted to her suit and she'd tried it out by going EVA, she'd need to tweak it to suit her 'special needs'.

As the average armoured suit was designed for the average MI, it couldn't handle the stresses that a slayer could put on it. There were a number of highly unofficial modifications that she'd need to make on her suit before she wore it into combat. If she didn't the chances were that she'd damage herself and her suit by trying to move too quickly or by doing something equally as stupid. At times she felt that her slayer powers were waisted in a power armour suit. Compared to any of her armoured comrades she was only marginally stronger and faster than they were and the suit's sensor suite was far superior to her slayer senses. The only one of her slayer powers that the suit couldn't mimic was her ability to sense danger.

“Hi Buffy!”

The sound of Harmony's voice made Buffy look up, she smiled at her friend while once again wondering at the difference between Harmony and the girl she'd know in her own time. Harmony might not be the brightest coin in the till, but she really was very sweet; she was also brave, loyal and a very effective fighter. For all these qualities, Buffy knew that her friend would never rise to anything higher than Corporal, it wasn't that she was stupid...well not as such. No one was stupid in the MI, or if they were they tended to die on their first mission. It was just that Harmony needed someone to tell her what to do. In the fullness of time she would get to lead her own squad but that was as high as she'd go. Okay, someone would probably promote her to sergeant for the last six months of her term. But that would simply be so she'd get a better pension and she'd likely spend those last months in charge of a storeroom somewhere.

“Hi Harm,” Buffy called back as she lifted another plasma rifle out of its case, “can you start checking on the grenades while I do this?”

“Sure,” Harmony slipped on a pair of coveralls over her khakis before picking up her own clipboard and starting to check that the boxes of ten grenades actually held ten grenades. “The girls are totally getting fitted for their suits, Sergeant Jones said they should be fitted and ready to test by the end of tomorrow. He also told me to tell you that you need to come and get your new suit, fitted.”

“Yeah I know,” Buffy replied, “I'll see Jones tomorrow, I just wanted to get a handle on this place before I do.” 

“Yeah,” Harmony closed a box of grenades before opening another one, “this place is like, totally awesome, much more room than the old 'H'.”

“Which means more kit and much more stuff to count and check,” Buffy pointed out.

“Kate O'Sullivan could probably help out and I think Mary Ryan scored high on her weapon's training,” Harmony closed the box after counting the grenades it held, she put it back on its rack and lifted out another box, “In fact most of what we're doing here is counting and we could like, have the entire squad down here, it'll help everyone totally bond!”

“Harm?” Buffy stopped what she was doing and turned to look at her friend in surprise, “Is that really you or have you been taken over by some sort of hyper intelligent xenomorph?”

“No...” Harmony looked a little like a kicked puppy as she turned to look at Buffy's grinning face, “I just totally read some of the guy's records and I like thought that...”

“NO!” Buffy realised that Harmony thought that Buffy was complaining, “I think its a great idea and I'm sorta kicking myself for not thinking of it myself, no...good work and I really mean that.”

“Thanks,” Harmony's usual happy smile was back on her face in an instant, “you see I've been reading my Junior NCO's Handbook and like its totally full of like, useful stuff like this and I thought that now I'm like a Lance Corporal I'd better, find out what I was supposed to do...much!”

“And people say she's stupid,” Buffy sighed quietly, and then more loudly she added, “I know, one of the things I should have done was read everyone's records, or at the very least try to remember what all their names are...but I've been so busy...”

“Which is why you've like totally got an _Assistant_ Squad Leader...” Harmony laughed, “...me!”

“I can see I'm going to be lost without you, Harm,” Buffy announced as she took an empty crate to the recycling chute and dumped it, in a couple of days she'd probably be eating it; one of the bad things about the new H Jones was it had food replicators and not human cooks.

“So,” Buffy continued as she tried to put recycled crate pizza out of her mind, “what do you think of the new fifth squad, seeing how you've spent some time getting to know them,” once again Buffy felt guilty for not at least being more welcoming to her guys...instead of leading them in a nude Miss Universe pageant in the showers, “I promise I'll get to know them all.”

“Well,” Harmony paused in her grenade checking for a second before speaking again, “they all seem quite nice and they were all either on their school's sports teams or were cheerleaders...”

It had occurred to Buffy that about fifty percent of the successful female MI (that is the ones that made it through training) had a background in cheerleading. Which was obvious when she thought about it. To be a good cheerleader, you had to learn things quickly and remember them perfectly. They also had to be very fit, strong and agile, also the ability to bend yourself into weird positions helped...it was either that or be a slayer.

“No bad apples?” Buffy wanted to know.

“I'd keep an eye on that McCarthy girl,” Harmony replied conspiratorially, “she had a couple of fairly serious discipline problems at Cavell and her juvvie records are sealed.”

“I'll bear that in mind,” Buffy stopped what she was doing and looked around at all the unopened crates, “you know we could be here 'til Christmas doing this.”

“Darn!” Harmony had opened another box of grenades only to find it was full of tins of fire pills, she held one up for Buffy to see.

“Is it just the one tin or...”

“Whole box,” Harmony replied.

“Okay put it to one side we'll check the serial numbers later,” Buffy said before asking, “have you seen the new officer yet, I don't even know his name.”

“Second Lieutenant Sergi Ivanovich Kutuzov,” Harmony supplied helpfully, “he came aboard just before we left Gateway.”

“Bit of a mouthful” Buffy observed, “I hope he doesn't expect us to use his full name all the time...” she paused for a moment before adding, “I wonder if he's related to General Kutuzov? S-so...” Buffy took a deep breath, “...what does this Sergi Ivanovich Kutuzov look like?” 

“Russian,” Harmony replied after a moments thought.

“Great description there, Harm,” Buffy pointed out.

0=0=0=0

As it turned out, Buffy got to meet her new platoon leader later that very evening during the 'Mr Universe' competition being held in the showers. Buffy was sitting at the end of the line made up of all the members of fifth squad, dressed only in dark glasses and a false plastic nose. Watching all the male newbies, march past, she joined in with all the ribald comments and laughter from her squad. Everyone was laughing and having a good time as the female MI awarded points to their male comrades. Listening in to some of the comments coming from the mouths of her squad, Buffy was quite shocked, were these the same girls who'd screamed when they'd discovered a bunch of guys in the showers with them?

It was just as Buffy held up her score cards as the last contestant went by that she noticed something was wrong...everything had gone very quiet all of a sudden. Standing up to get a better view, she turned towards the entrance to the showers just like everyone else was doing. There in the doorway stood Mr Sergi Ivanovich Kutuzov, her new platoon leader. Buffy was pretty impressed by the man because the man in question was stark naked (having come to take a shower) however, she also recognised the very annoyed expression on Kutuzov's face.

“Oh crapolla,” Harmony muttered under her breath; Buffy couldn't have said it better herself.

What followed would have been quite funny under different circumstances. While Mr Kutuzov and several sergeants held a whispered but definitely angry conversation (Buffy thought how strange it was to see everyone arguing quietly while they weren't wearing a stitch of clothing), she and the other junior NCOs ushered everyone out of the showers and back to their squad bays. As Buffy hurried her squad through the exit she noticed Kutuzov look at her for a second or two. He didn't appear to recognise her, either that or he was real good actor who was incredibly good at hiding his surprise at seeing several young women running around in the nude amongst the men, either way Buffy was glad to grab her things and head back to her squad bay.

0=0=0=0


	20. Chapter 20

20.

By the time the H Jones got to its patrol sector, Buffy had counted, reorganised and stored every weapon in the armoury. Every plasma rifle, rocket launcher and flamer had been test fired and a random selection of grenades and fire pills had been checked. Of course she'd not done all this by herself, she'd had lots of help from Harmony and the rest of her squad, particularly when the time came for test firing the weapons.

The test firing had taken place when the H Jones came out of Cherenkov Drive and into normal space. As her squad began firing all the weapons in the armoury, Buffy and Harmony had watched as each girl shot at a target floating in space about five hundred yards from the starship. By the end of the day, Buffy thought that she probably had the best marks _women_ in the platoon and was already planning on trying to get Sandy O'Connor to run a combat shooting competition in the simulators, she was quietly confident that her girls would win.

Also during this time, Buffy had to get herself fitted to her new Marauder 'C' suit, this took up nearly forty-eight man-hours to get the suit from 'cold' to 'warm' and ready to wear. After duty, Buffy also had to find time to read all the records belonging to her new squad, plus learn all their names. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she only became suspicious when she tried to read Fin McCarthy's records. It appeared the girl had got into a couple of fights at boot camp, but Buffy couldn't find the reasons behind either of these fights. Since she'd been aboard the Jones, McCarthy hadn't done anything out of the ordinary and Buffy couldn't believe the girl would have just started a fight for no reason. After each fight at boot camp, McCarthy had been given 'Administrative Punishment'. This meant that she spent her 'copious' free time doing extra drill and inspections. As a recruit generally had _no_ free time (this was particularly true since the war had started) these punishments didn't even add up to a slap on the wrist.

It was when Buffy tried to access McCarthy's juvenile records that she became even more suspicious. No matter how she tried she just couldn't get past the block that had been put on all but the most innocuous records from before McCarthy had joined the Mobile Infantry. Wishing she had Willow's abilities where computers were concerned, Buffy was eventually reduced to having to go to her platoon sergeant to ask him to open McCarthy's files so she could read them.

Much to Buffy's surprise and a sudden upward jump in her paranoia level, she discovered that Ship's Sergeant O'Connor couldn't access the girl's records either. Knowing that the MI didn't recruit criminals or people with unstable personalities, Buffy started to wonder if something very bad had happened to the girl when she was a child, perhaps she'd been abused or maybe she was related to someone important, famous or even infamous. Maybe, Buffy finally admitted to herself, she would only find out about McCarthy's past by actually _asking_ her.

However, Buffy had been much more successful where Lieutenant Kutuzov was concerned, she'd found a full bio on him. It appeared that he was in fact a distant relative of the Russian General who'd planned the assault on Nazi Berlin at the end of the Second World War.

0=0=0=0

As time passed, life aboard the H Jones got into a routine of ship board jobs and time spent in the simulators as the ship went from system to system checking each one out for any sign of the bugs. Of course this was all very time consuming and boring work. On arriving in a star system, the H Jones had to check every planet, planetoid and moon. If there were any asteroid fields these would have to be checked too, this normally took about a month to six weeks even using all of the H's recon drones. The monotony was broken only when the MI got to put the platoon down on some barren planetoid so they could run through a live fire combat exercise. These exercises proved useful for Buffy as it gave her a chance to check out how well her squad operated in combat situations. It wasn't in anyway a substitute for real combat but at least she could see that her squad hadn't forgotten what they'd learnt back in boot camp and it gave the squad a chance to learn to work together while no one was actually trying to kill them.

During the first six or seven weeks of the H Jones' patrol the only sign of bug activity had been when the ship had jumped into a system to find a bug hive ship already there. Alarm bells had rung as everyone went to battle-stations; for the MI this meant getting into their armour and drawing weapons. While one section was deployed around the ship to confront any bug boarding parties, the other section was organised to form an offensive boarding party of its own. Unfortunately, at least for the MI aboard, the Jones' twelve inch mass drivers took the hive ship out while they were still several thousand miles away (point-blank range for space combat). The bug ship was destroyed and a search of the system (luckily one with only three planets) revealed that the bugs hadn't begun to colonize any of the planets before the Jones turned up.

After this little piece of excitement nothing happened until they jumped into the next system on their list to find a courier boat already there and waiting for them. No sooner had the courier boat flashed its data to the Jones than it turned away from the larger vessel and sped towards the edge of the system and winked out of existence as it engaged its Cherenkov drives. Within about an hour, in which time much wild speculation ran through the ship, the Jones engaged her own Cherenkov drives and disappeared from the system, they had a mission.

0=0=0=0

“Okay listen up,” Buffy got her squad's attention as they sat before her in the squad bay's common area; it had been three days since the Jones had met up with the courier ship, “I know you've all had the mission data downloaded into your minds last night, but as some of you haven't got minds to download data into, I'm going to go through the plan one more time.”

There was polite laughter at Buffy's little joke while she adjusted the controls of the holographic display, a hologram of a planet sprang into life above the table in the centre of the common area.

“This,” Buffy gestured to the planet as it hung in the air over the table, “is GJ-1214-4,” she paused to let that information sink in for a second or two, “As you can see it's a little smaller than Earth but it has about the same gravity as good old Terra, so you shouldn't have to compensate when you use your jets to bounce.”

The view of the planet changed to concentrate on an area in the northern half of the planet.

“As you can see, GJ-1214-4 has one major land mass and here,” once again the hologram focused in on a small section of the planet, “is the only major settlement on the planet...the Acme Mining Corporation's Mineral Extraction Facility Number 79, know to its inhabitants as 'Dog-Pile'.”

Again there was laughter, this time a little louder than for Buffy's earlier joke.

“Dog-Pile had a human population of about thirty-five-thousand before the bugs took the planet away from us,” Buffy watched the reaction of her squad, “unfortunately when the bugs arrived there wasn't enough time or enough ships to evacuate more than a handful of the workers and their families so the bugs captured the place intact.”

Again Buffy paused and watched the serious expressions on her squad's faces for a moment before continuing with her briefing.

“The mines around Dog-Pile produce several important strategic resources so their destruction will hit the bugs where it hurts,” Buffy explained, “On this mission we will be joined by a light carrier whose fighters will take down any Bug merchant ships who are in system while we go down and take out the mines and kill bugs.”

“We'll be dropping by capsule people so if any of you have problems with claustrophobia don't forget to take your pills _before_ you get strapped in.” Speaking for herself Buffy only had minor concerns about being strapped and sealed into a drop capsule, other people developed quite bad cases of claustrophobia over the years, which was why the MI had developed pharmaceuticals to help take your mind off being trapped inside a small egg and unable to ether move or escape if something went wrong.

“Once we land our job is to smash and destroy the mines and any mining equipment.” By now the holo-map was showing close up views of the area around Dog-Pile. “Of course we will also be there to kill bugs, any bugs, warriors or workers it doesn't matter what you see; if its got more than two legs and hasn't evolved from a monkey its fair game, okay?”

“Okay!” replied fifth squad with firm affirmative nods.

“Any bug holes we come across we'll throw a gas cylinder down and seal,” Buffy smiled as she remembered an incident from a recent training simulation, “and this time Private Kennedy,” Buffy looked straight at the pretty blonde girl, “remember to turn the cylinder on _before_ you throw it in the hole and seal it up, okay?”

After the renewed laughter had faded away, Buffy continued with her lecture.

“This will be our area of responsibility...” the holo-map focused in tightly on any area of habitat modules and some sort of refining facility in the south-west corner of the settlement. Buffy spent a couple of minutes explaining what the squad should expect and what they were to do about it, this last usually involved shooting something or blowing something up.

“One last thing,” Buffy said as she came to the end of her briefing, “at the beginning of this lecture which you've all done your very best not to sleep through I mentioned that there were thirty-thousand plus people working and living around this place, now we all know what the bugs use for food...”

More than most, Buffy knew exactly what the bugs used for food. Having been amongst the first to find evidence of a bug food processor, she'd seen the waste left over after the inhabitants of a Thulian village had been herded into one of the bug food machines. It didn't seem to bother the bugs what they ate, be it animal, vegetable or mineral which, of course, included people. The Federation had known for a long time that the Bugs kept military prisoners, but until the counter-offensive on Thule there had only been some wild speculation as to what happened to the civilian populations of conquered planets. Now everyone knew, the news had even silenced the 'Stop the War Coalition' for a while, but only for a while.

“...look,” Buffy continued soberly, “GJ-1214-4 has been in bugs 'hands' since the first few months of the war, so we are _not_ expecting to find any survivors,” she paused, “you will not be riding to the rescue on this mission, people. The most you're likely to find of the population is a few piles of dried up bones mixed in with some pieces of clothing.” Buffy paused once more, “I don't want to sound heartless, but, I don't want to see anyone bursting into tears if we do find something. There'll be time enough for that at the burial service. I also _do not_ want to see anyone going berserk and rushing off to win the war single handed...this mission will go by the numbers and on the bounce, just like a training exercise in the sims...only this time if the bugs shoot anyone the victim can expect more than just a chewing out from me...there will not be any real estate deals on this mission, do you understand?”

“YES CORPORAL!” the squad replied as one.

“Okay,” Buffy tried a smile of reassurance, it seemed to work because several of her squad actually looked reassured, “revallie is at zero-five-hundred Zulu, so get a good night's sleep and be on the bounce tomorrow morning, okay, dismiss.”

Buffy turned and walked back towards her bunk and felt Harmony come to walk beside her.

“How do you think that went, Harm?” Buffy asked.

“Totally cool,” Harmony admitted, “I think you've got it totally right to do these little mission talks before we go in.”

“You do?” Buffy turned to look at her friend as the both sat down on Harmony's bunk, “That's good...sometimes I think that its all pretty pointless what with the downloads an'all.”

“Totally,” Harmony laughed, “I mean like you said, some of us haven't got minds to have anything to download into...”

“No Harm!” Buffy cried as she reached for Harmony's hand and squeezed it gently, “Not you, I never meant you I...”

“I know Buffy,” Harmony replied quietly, “but I know I'm like not as clever as you, I need you around to tell me what to do, y'know?”

“You do okay by yourself, Harm,” Buffy reassured her, “remember I saw what you did on Thule and on a load of other raids we've been on.”

“But that's just, killing bugs,” Harmony pointed out with a shrug, “anyone can do that.”

“Not anyone,” Buffy explained, “most people would run a mile at the first sight of a bug warrior, you don't, you're brave and I'm proud to have you as a friend.”

It had been Harmony who'd dug Buffy out and rescued her after that last orbital bombardment on Thule. If it hadn't been for Harmony, Buffy knew she'd probably be dead. Yet somehow it was her who was the hero not Harmony. Okay Harmony had got a Military Cross for her actions, it was Buffy who'd got a Silver Star for doing something stupid like taking out that bug war machine moments before the navy destroyed it anyway. In Buffy's mind it was Harmony who should have got the Silver Star not her.

“Tell you what, Harm,” Buffy got up from the bunk.

“What?”

“Let's go to the galley and I'll pour you a cup of coffee and then we'll go to the armoury and see if we can get that sticky missile launcher to work,” Buffy suggested; she knew that a little work would get their minds off the past and what was going to happen tomorrow.

0=0=0=0

At exactly zero-five-hundred Zulu the following morning Buffy, Harmony and all the other MI aboard the Jones were called from their bunks. Buffy always found the different ways people dealt with the pre-mission wait interesting. Some went quiet and hardly said a word. Others acted as if nothing out of the ordinary was about to happen, that today would be exactly like every other day aboard the Jones. Other's acted like they couldn't wait to get at the bugs and who was to say they weren't, perhaps they had their own reasons to want to slaughter the bugs in as big numbers as they could.

Harmony always acted like it was just another day, only getting a little excited as the time for launch got closer. Buffy on the other hand always acted like it was just another chore she had to do instead of going to the gym or counting grenades and rockets. Of course today, she was pretty interested to see how her squad would react to their first taste of real action. She also realised that a lot of eyes would be on her squad to see how it and she performed. Not only was it her first time in action as squad leader, but, as far as she knew, this was the first time that an all female sub-unit of MI was going into action. Buffy, along with a lot of other people were curious to find out what would happen.

0=0=0=0


	21. Chapter 21

21.

It was just after planetary dawn when Buffy blew the explosive bolts on her restraints and the third layer of her capsule disintegrated around her. For a moment she fell towards the surface of the planet before she popped her ribbon chute to slow herself down a little. This let the fragments of her 'egg' fall so they were between her and the surface. Checking the readout on her Head Up Display, she saw that her suit was undamaged as were the suits of the rest of her squad. Next she checked the medical readouts of her squad to find they were all in the green apart from some accelerated heart rates which was only to be expected because everyone, except Harmony and herself, were taking part in their first combat jump.

Seeing that the fragments of her capsule were well below her now, Buffy cut lose her ribbon chute and deployed her main chute. The great, almost invisible, canopy opened out above her head with a loud 'CRACK!' as the deceptively fragile looking material filled with air. Still a thousand feet above the surface of GJ-1214-4, she checked the positions of her squad in her HUD again, every one was where they should be except Jamie Boyle who was call sign Five-Two-Alpha.

“Five-Two-Alpha this is Five-One,” Buffy called, “swing to your left more or you'll be out of position when you land...” Buffy watched for a moment as the icon that represented Jamie moved back into position, “...that's good Two-Alpha, out.”

Satisfied, Buffy checked her own readouts again, five hundred feet and everything was still green. So far the drop was going perfectly, the Jones had dropped their capsules from orbit. Everyone had made re-entry without mishap and now everyone was falling gently to the ground under deployed chutes. Four hundred feet to go and Buffy started to think about cutting her chute loose and landing on her jets.

Bug counter fire had been light and sporadic, as usual it was mainly slugs or beams. There had been reports of the Bugs using something like old fashioned flak guns (but bigger) that fired a shell which could be set to explode at a certain height, but none had been used today. Once more Buffy wondered why the Bugs didn't use missiles, not even on starships; she also wondered if the Bugs might learn from humanity and start to use their own missiles some day soon. However, no missiles or 'flak' rose to meet her so she was cool.

Glancing at her altimeter, Buffy saw that she was now only two-hundred-and-fifty feet up. Thinking she must have let her mind wonder for a moment, she started to look for a good landing spot. From up where she was it looked like she was spoilt for choice. The area around he squad's objective was almost completely flat. The hard sand of the plain around Dog-Pile was well able to take the weight of a two-thousand pound cap-trooper when she landed. Noticing a stream of bullets rise slowly towards her, Buffy veered to her right and pulled her plasma rifle off her back. By the time she was ready to fire back, however, the bug and its slug-thrower had vanished.

At one-hundred feet, Buffy cut lose her main chute and jettisoned her unused secondary chute, she allowed herself to free-fall for twenty feet before cutting in her jets and almost coming to a halt. Cutting off her jets she fell another twenty feet before riding her jets again. This manoeuvre was designed to throw off the aim of any bug that might be trying to draw a bead on her. In a series of twenty foot drops followed by a burst from her jets, Buffy landed on a spot just behind a very low rise about a thousand yards from her squad's objective.

“All 'Two-Five call-signs sound off!” Buffy ordered as soon as her armoured feet hit dirt; holding her plasma rifle across her chest she ran the few paces towards the crest of the rise and before throwing herself down into cover.

As her squad called in and indicated that they'd all landed safely and weren't in any danger, Buffy checked her HUD once more. There on the little map projected on the inside of her face plate she could easily make out the eight icons that represented herself and the rest of her squad. Fifth Squad was deployed in a wide circle about a thousand yards out from their objective; a collection of habitat modules and what looked like a mineral processing plant or refinery.

“Five-One this is Nine-Actual,” Lt Kutuzov's voice sounded in Buffy's ears, “On the bounce Corporal, your squad's lagging behind, out!”

“Lagging behind?” Buffy glanced at the mission clock in the top left corner of her HUD, as far as she could see they were right on time if not a little ahead of schedule, “Asshole,” Buffy muttered in a low voice before standing up again, “All One and Two-Five call-signs, prepare to move, odds and evens, odd numbers advance!”

Jumping into the air, Buffy flew forward at 'nape of earth' two hundred yards before grounding again, still the bugs hadn't opened up. An itchy, nervous feeling started to spread across her body from the centre of stomach, it was like all the millions of nanites that shared her suit with her had put on spike heels and were dancing a tango across her skin. Recognising this as a sure sign that her slayer senses were trying to tell her something bad was about to happen, she dialled up the magnification on her HUD and looked towards her objective. Although there was still no sign of any bugs, Buffy let go of her rifle and took her missile launcher from her left shoulder and checked the weapon's magazine. The five 60mm HE missiles sat snugly in their magazine just waiting to unleash death and destruction on any unsuspecting bugs. Unfortunately there was still no sign of any bug activity around the objective, just as she began to wonder what was happening with the rest of the platoon, Mr Kutuzov's voice came over the air once again.

“All Marauder call signs, this is Nine-Actual,” Mr Kutuzov sounded excited almost hysterical even, “we've caught the bugs napping, move up, move up! Get on those objectives before they...”

There was a break in transmission that indicated that another call-sign (probably the Papa Sierra, Sandy O'Connor) had broken in on the L-t's broadcast. A moment later Buffy's suspicions were confirmed. 

“...I know what I'm doing, Sergeant,” Mr Kutuzov sounded overexcited and totally hyped up almost as if he was on a combat stimulants, “just follow orders...now everyone MOVE!”

“Snake?” Harmony's voice came over the squawk-net, “Are you okay, you're totally lagging behind.”

“I'm fine, Harm,” Buffy replied, “Everyone ground and freeze...”

“What the hell are you doing Corporal Summers!?” Lt Kutuzov's voice sounded so loud in Buffy's helmet that it almost made her teeth vibrate; the squawk-net was supposed to be private so that the members of a squad could discuss a problem without fear of higher authority listening in. Some how Mr Kutuzov must have overridden the security functions and had been listening in. “Did I tell you to 'ground and freeze? NO I DID NOT!” This time Buffy's teeth did vibrate, “I TOLD YOU TO GET ON TO THAT OBJECTIVE, **NOW MOOOVE!** ”

“Crap!” Buffy cursed as she selected another private and very unofficial, channel so she could talk to her squad, hopefully, without anyone listening in. “Everyone stay down, don't listen to that asshole, there's bugs in that...”

“YOU'RE RELIEVED CORPORAL SUMMERS!” Kutuzov screamed over the radio.

“Snake, stand fast,” this time it was the calm sound of Sandy O'Connor's voice coming to Buffy over her comms, “Mr Kutuzov may I suggest that you...”

Buffy never got to hear what Sandy was about to say because the bugs choose that moment to open fire. Suddenly the air above her head was criss-crossed with lines of slugs and those nasty, sickly, green beams that could cut an armoured trooper clean in half. Luckily as Buffy had already told her squad to 'ground and freeze' no one was hit. Unfortunately troopers in other squads who were still making their way towards their own objectives were being hit. Listening to the calls from downed troopers, Buffy felt like spitting nails or shooting idiot Lieutenants who were _so_ stupid that even the bugs could fool them, Remembering where she was, she started to pass on her own orders.

“Unfreeze and open fire!” Buffy called, “tactical advance, odds and evens on my mark...” getting to her feet, Buffy lifted her launcher to her shoulder and sighted on the refinery.

Pulling the first trigger to let the warhead see its target, Buffy noted that most of the bug fire seemed to be coming from that direction. The missile bleeped at her telling her that it knew where she wanted it to go. Pulling the second trigger the little missile whooshed from its tube towards its target. A second or two later the missile hit and exploded, there was no great flash or billowing flames like in the movies. Instead there was a bright white and orange flash which was almost immediately obscured as a cloud of dust rose up from the ground. Moments later, just as the dust was starting to clear a great flash followed by a mind numbing 'BANG!' which in turn was followed by a ground tremor like an earthquake shook everyone off their feet for a couple of thousand yards around.

“Wow!” Buffy gasped as she watched a great mushroom cloud form over the wreck of the refinery.

“Hey, Snake,” Harmony's voice came over the radio to Buffy, “I didn't think we were like totally carrying nukes today.”

“Erm...” Buffy was still a little shaken by what she'd done, her missile must have hit something really, really volatile, “...no, we're not, erm...” Buffy tried to remember what she was supposed to do next, luckily Harmony gave the order to advance.

“Fifth Squad, advance and watch you arcs of fire lets, totally not have any blue-on-blue blues today,” Harmony called as the squad started to move forward again.

“Yeah, right,” Buffy told her as she ran a few paces before jumping and cutting in her jets just as a burst of 25mm Light Assault Gun fire passed through the space she'd jumped from, “HEY! CHECK FIRE! CHECK FIRE!” Buffy yelled angrily, “Whoever's on that twenty-five-mill check your targets before you fire!” Buffy took a deep breath, she was in danger of losing control of herself, Lt Kutuzov's recklessness was infecting her and probably the rest of the platoon, it was time to calm things down. “Everyone ground and fire at targets of opportunity.”

Landing a few yards further on, Buffy dumped her launcher and picked up her plasma rifle again, she needed a few moments to collect her thoughts and work out what the hell was going on. Monitoring the platoon net for a few seconds, she heard the calm voice of Sandy O'Connor giving orders in an unhurried tone as he got the platoon under control and organised pick up on any downed or injured troopers. Taking her cue from her Papa Sierra, Buffy watched the icons of her squad on her HUD. Every one was still green and the squad was still positioned in a ragged circle around their objective. The primary objective was little more than a huge smoking crater, it was pointless to keep on advancing towards it.

“Okay, listen up people,” Buffy spoke hoping that her new found calm would transmit itself to her squad. “The primary is gone so we're going to go after the secondary. I want everyone to realign on the secondary and even out those intervals,” even as she watched she saw the little green icons of her squad crawl across her face plate, “okay that looks good.”

Breathing a sigh of relief Buffy was just about to order everyone forward when the ground opened up about ten yards ahead of her.

“BUGS! BUGS!” Buffy yelled as she opened up on the bug horde with her plasma rifle.

After seeing that she must have killed dozens of the loathsome creatures Buffy suddenly realised she wasn't dead. Ceasing her fire she took a moment to really look at the bugs spreading out across the sand from the hole. They were all workers.

“Cancel my last hysterical call,” Buffy told her squad and heard a few answering sniggers, “Okay I've got a few hundred workers crawling all over the place here, disgusting but not dangerous. Can anyone see any warriors anywhere?”

Negative replies came in from the squad.

“Okay,” Buffy shot a few more workers just to keep herself busy while she thought of what her next move should be, “lets keep moving towards the secondary, maybe we'll draw the warriors out as we get closer.”

“Can I shoot a missile at the secondary, Snake?” Harmony asked adding, “Pretty please?”

“What the hell,” Buffy shrugged as she tossed a canister of nerve gas into the bug-hole, “be my guest.”

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Harmony called dramatically as Buffy saw a missile lance towards the secondary target from the other side of the interdiction circle.

Glancing into the bug hole Buffy saw the gas start to take effect as workers began to curl up and die. The gas would spread out and sink to the lowest recesses of the bug nest killing thousands of bugs as it went. Federation Intelligence knew that the bugs didn't like these tactics and particularly didn't like the gas which killed only bugs and left everything else unharmed. Satisfied that the gas was doing its work, Buffy backed off from the hole and threw a grenade into the hollow the bugs had made. Her grenade exploded at about the same time as Harmony's missile.

There was a cloud of dust as Buffy's grenade collapsed the bug hole; there was also a loud 'Bang!' as Harm's missile destroyed a couple of habitat modules. Unlike Buffy's missile strike, Harmony's warhead didn't cause any cataclysmic explosions.

“Darn,” Harmony sounded just a little bit disappointed, “that was like totally unspectacular.”

“Better luck next time, Harm,” Buffy replied with a chuckle, “Okay lets sweep through this place, but remember everyone, check your targets before you fire.”

Apart from sporadic fire from isolated bug warriors, nothing else untoward happened before Buffy's squad reached the habitat modules. Standing about fifty feet short of the closest building, she listened as Harmony placed the squad in defensive positions around the habitat. Keying in the platoon frequency Buffy called up Sandy O'Connor.

“Nine-Alpha, this is Five-One, sitrep over.”

“Nine-Alpha, send over.”

“Five-One, what the hells going on, Sarge?”

“That's not proper radio procedure Snake, now get on with your sitrep, over.”

“Five-one, I'm firm on my secondary objective now. Primary objective totally destroyed, no sign of bugs, over.”

“Nine-Alpha, none? Over.”

“Five-One, not since we totalled the refinery. We had a bug-hole open up but it was all workers and I sealed the hole with gas and a grenade. Only sporadic fire from the secondary and no dead warriors, over.”

“Nine-Alpha, about the same thing here, keep on the bounce and don't fall asleep, I'll be back to you with new orders in five, over.”

“Roger that, Five-One, out.”

Standing for a couple of moments longer, Buffy felt her eyes drawn towards the closest habitat module.

“Harm?” Buffy called over the squawk-net hoping that there wasn't anyone else listening in, “Did you monitor my last with Papa Sierra?”

“Yep,” Buffy could almost hear Harmony's shrug, “the Sarge musta taken over the platoon.”

“Sounds like,” Buffy agreed, “look, I'm going to take a look inside one of these modules, can you handle everything out here I won't be long.”

“Sure,” Harmony agreed, “but you're not going by yourself...”

“But...” Buffy started to object almost adding 'mom' to what she'd been about to say.

“Haven't you seen all the horror vids where the hero goes off on her own and gets eaten?” Harmony wanted to know.

“Erm...Harm...” Buffy wanted to say more and point out that those vid-heroes weren't MI, but Harmony didn't let her.

“Well I have and while I want to have my own squad one day I don't want it to be yours because you went off by yourself and got yourself shot,” Harmony sounded like she was about to start sobbing, “McCarthy you go with her make sure she comes back alive, if she doesn't don't bother coming back yourself.”

“Way to go, Harm,” Buffy smiled.

A moment later Fin McCarthy also known as Five-One-Alpha landed next to Buffy. Bringing her heavy flamer into the ready position she turned towards Buffy and spoke.

“Okay Corporal, where do you want to go?”

0=0=0=0


	22. Chapter 22

22.

After ripping the door to the habitat module off its hinges, Buffy looked inside. It was dark so she dialled her HUD through its many vision capabilities until she came to 'image intensifier'; she nearly always had to do this because when she had her HUD on, her 'slayer vision' didn't work so well. Anyway, the HUD allowed her to see in so many different wavelengths of light that it was actually better than her natural eyesight. Pulling her plasma rifle from off her shoulder, she stepped into the module.

“Watch my back,” Buffy ordered Fin McCarthy who was standing about three paces behind her.

“Roger that,” came the girl's quiet reply.

Taking a couple of paces into the building, Buffy noticed that the floor was bending and groaning under her weight.

“Careful where you stand,” Buffy called quietly over the squawk-net, “I don't think these floors were designed with MI in mind.”

“You're not wrong, Corporal,” Fin called as she stepped into the building and the floor made an extra loud creek under her added weight.

“While we're on the squawk-net,” Buffy explained, “you call me 'Snake'.”

“Snake?” Buffy could hear the frown in Fin's voice, “Why Snake?”

“Something I said when I first joined the Marauders,” Buffy smiled to herself, actually it wasn't really something _she'd_ said it was something her then squad leader had picked up on and the name had stuck; plus is was more scary and warlike than 'Buffy', so she didn't mind, “What should I call you, McCarthy?”

“I've always been called 'Fin'...erm...Snake.”

“Thought so,” Buffy nodded to herself inside her suit, “you know you'll probably end up being called 'Shark'...do you swim?”

“Not in a suit,” Fin called back.

“Okay, now we're officially introduced,” Buffy gestured with her rifle, “lets get to work.”

After coming through the door, Buffy had found herself in a corridor that looked as if it stretched the entire length of the module (about fifty yards) before it ended in another door that probably lead to yet another module. Either side of the corridor were doors leading to what appeared to be offices. As she worked her way cautiously along the passageway, she glanced into each room as she went by. The rooms were all very similar, about three yards square and containing one or two workstations, Buffy thought she'd probably found some sort of admin building. There were signs of a hurried departure everywhere; a chair knocked over here, documents and office equipment scattered on the floor there, but no sign of combat.

“The people must have tried to evacuate as soon as the Bugs landed,” Buffy gestured to the detritus scattered on the floor, “they wouldn't have had much time. When the Bugs take somewhere over they go in hard and fast.”

“Maybe some made it out,” Fin said hopefully, “or got away into the interior?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Buffy didn't think it was likely, “there's little water and nothing to eat in the interior. Temperature's boiling by day and freezing by night. I think if anyone did get away it only put off the inevitable for a few days or until their supplies ran out.”

“You think everyone's dead?” Fin sounded very young as she spoke.

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed sadly, “but the Navy's doing scans just in case I'm wrong. You never know there might be few settlements that the Bugs missed, there might even be survivors.”

Looking into another office, Buffy saw it was just like the others, signs of a hurried departure under a layer of thick dust, there were even little piles of sand beneath the window where the wind had forced its way in. No one had been in this module since the Bugs had landed.

“Locked door,” Fin called, she'd tried to open a door on the opposite side of the corridor from Buffy.

“Okay,” Buffy turned so she could cover Fin with her rifle, “after you.”

Tapping the door with her shoulder, Fin stood back as the lock broke and the door swung open; something as light as an office door didn't stand a chance against a man or woman in power armour. Standing to one side of the door, just like it said you should in the MI manual on room clearance, Fin waited for any answering fire to come out of the door. After waiting a couple of seconds and as everything remained silent with no one shooting at them, Fin burst into the room her heavy flamer up and ready to incinerate any hostile forces she might encounter. Still in the corridor, Buffy listened to Fin's breathing and heard her heavy footsteps as she searched the room. After a moment or two, Buffy heard her gasp in surprise.

“Oh, Mary Mother of God!” Fin cried as Buffy moved rapidly into the room.

“What's up...” Buffy began to ask, but stopped when she saw the two bodies on the floor, “...darn,” she sighed as she knelt down next to the larger body. “Woman by the looks of her clothes,” the body was sunken and desiccated from the heat and dry air, she pointed to the big hole in the woman's skull and the large calibre slug thrower pistol that lay near her out flung hand, “probably shot herself and the kid when she realised what was going on and the bugs never policed up their bodies.”

“Oh, God,” Fin turned away from the bodies and bent over as if she was about to throw up; Buffy could hear her start to retch.

“Don't throw-up!” Buffy cried as she sprang to her feet and rushed over to the girl, “if you do the nanite's will crawl all over your face and eat your eyebrows!”

The nanites that inhabited the suits had a thing for human hair, to them it was like chocolate to a chocoholic. Okay, this meant that Buffy didn't have to shave her legs or underarms ever again (or anything else), it did mean, however, that if you threw up in you helmet the nanites would go in to clean up the mess. Then, once the work was done, they'd stay behind and party. The nanites always did a really good job of eating up any dead skin or unwanted facial hair, but Buffy had grown attached to her eyebrows and the hair on her head. Yes, her eyebrows had grown back after she'd thrown up when she'd found the remains of those Thulians, but she'd spent an embarrassing couple of weeks without eyebrows and looking very surprised.

“I'm okay,” Fin gestured to Buffy to back off, “I'm fine,” the girl gave a weak chuckle, “I mean I don't want to lose my eyebrows.”

“You sure?” Buffy asked as she turned back to look at the body again, she took a deep breath, “There's nothing we can do for them now.”

“You mean we're going to just leave them there?” Fin asked incredulously.

“No,” Buffy took a tiny tracer from a pouch on her utility belt and placed it on the corpse of the woman, “there, graves registration can find them now and give them a proper burial, you'll be able to visit if you want.”

“Do you?” Fin asked, “I mean visit...”

“No,” Buffy shook her head, a gesture that was completely lost on Fin as their helmets were the only parts of their suits that didn't move, “most of the people I know who are dead are either still on Klendathu, in the Sunnydale Crater or floating in space.”

“You're from Sunnydale?”

“Yep,” Buffy turned away from the body, “I survived because I was out in space fighting bugs, my mom wasn't so lucky...I still hope that my sister's alive somewhere but the Red Cross and the Salvation Army haven't been able to find her...yet.”

“I'm sorry,” Fin said quietly, “I saw the news casts when I was still in school, its what made me join and go for MI.”

“Thanks.”

“What for?”

“Caring enough to do something,” Buffy explained, “now lets finish clearing this place before we both get all girlie and start crying...the nanites love tears too...its the salt.”

Leading the way out of the room and back into the corridor, Buffy turned towards the door at the end of the passage way. As she walked the short distance to the closed door, Buffy examined her feeling. Was the dead woman and the child the reason she'd felt drawn to this particular module, or was there something else that still needed to be found?

“Okay, I'll take this one,” Buffy called as she walked up to the door and hit it with the palm of her left hand.

The door flew open to reveal a heaving mass of bugs.

“BUGS!” Fin screamed so loudly that Buffy's comms had to compensate for the sudden increase in volume.

A great wave of chemical flame rolled over Buffy and into the room where it incinerated at least a dozen Bugs.

“Hold it!” Buffy cried out, “Check fire, check fire!”

Getting a grip of herself Fin stopped firing.

“Workers,” Buffy gestured into the room as smoke rose from the smouldering remains of the bugs, “harmless, okay?”

“Okay,” Fin breathed back, “sorry.”

“What for?” Buffy asked as she stepped carefully into the room, “The way I see it, the only good bug is a dead bug, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay, lets see what was so interesting in here,” Buffy stepped into the room as the last few living bugs scurried away through a hole in the wall. “Hello Nine-Alpha, this is Five-One, contact now,” Buffy started to send a contact report over the platoon-net, “Worker Bugs in habitat at grid 190-337, we've destroyed about a dozen, myself and call sign Five-One-Alpha are investigating, over.”

“Roger that, Five-One,” a voice that Buffy didn't immediately recognise replied, “be careful and don't buy a firm, out.”

“Come on,” Buffy held her rifle out in front of her as she advanced towards the hole, “lets see where the creepy-crawlies have gone to, huh?”

Walking up to the hole in the wall, Buffy stepped to once side to take position next to the opening. Without needing to be told, Fin took position opposite Buffy. Taking a grenade from her utility belt, she held it up for Fin to see. Next she mimed throwing the grenade and signalling that Fin should fire her flamer through the hole after the grenade had exploded.

“I don't know why I'm using all these fancy hand gestures,” Buffy sighed, “no one can hear us!”

“Not a problem,” Fin replied, “I get the plan...you want me to shake my butt through the hole after you've sung a chorus of 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling', right?”

“Whatever,” Buffy pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it though the hole.

The grenade went off almost immediately causing a great cloud of dust to billow from the hole. No sooner had the grenade gone off than Fin stuck the muzzle of her heavy flamer through the gap, triggering the weapon, the two young women watched as flame leaked from the hole to wash around their armoured feet.

“FOLLOW ME!” Buffy yelled as she dived through the hole firing her plasma rifle as she went.

By the time Fin followed her through, there were already five or six workers lying twitching on the floor, over in the far corner of the room a warrior lay dead riddled with bloody shrapnel holes from the grenade. Behind the warrior Fin could see another opening with yet another warrior forcing its way into the room. Activating her flamer, Fin watched as the warrior burst into flame and fired off a burst from the Gatling-gun type weapon it was carrying. Slugs from the bug weapon punched holes into the walls and ceiling of the room, a few even rattled off her suit.

“THIS WAY!” Buffy called as she ran at the opposite wall and smashed her way through, luckily the bug warriors in the next compartment were all too busy looking at the body of their dead comrade stuck in the hole to notice the two MI's arrival...at first.

Firing her plasma rifle on full automatic, Buffy cut into the bug warriors. Their bodies literally exploded when the super heated plasma came into contact with the bug's relatively cool body fluids. she must have killed five or six bugs before the others turned to fire at her and Fin. However, when they did they all opened fire at once. Luckily none of them had the very effective beam weapons that the bugs used, these warriors only had slug throwers. While the individual slugs had little chance of penetrating MI armour they still had a chance. With the volume of fire coming at Buffy and Fin that chance was increasing by the second and it was only a matter of time before a slug got into the armour they were wearing. If that happened the prospect for the MI wasn't good. The slug would bounce about inside the suit chopping the trooper into roughly butchered lumps of meat. Not even twenty-third century medicine could save them then.

Knocked off her feet by the hail of slugs directed at her, Buffy kept firing, hosing down the bugs as more of them forced their way into the room. Diving to the floor, Fin sent a long plume of fire towards the Bugs turning them into writhing, nightmare visions of unworldly spiders. Dropping her rifle, Buffy pulled her hand flamer and joined Fin in hosing down the warriors with fire.

“BUGS! BUGS!” Buffy called over her comms, “WARRIOR BUGS MY LOCATION AM ENGAGING, OVER!”

“Talk about understatement!” Fin replied as she incinerated yet another warrior that'd just smashed its way through the ceiling and dropped down right in her line of fire.

“What can I say,” Buffy replied as she hit a bug right in the 'face' with a burst from her own flamer, “I had an English teacher at school and he sorta infected me.”

“English, huh?” Fin asked as she burnt down another bug, “That explains it then.”

By now the building was well alight, although the flames or even having the building collapse on them wouldn't harm Fin or Buffy, it was getting hard to see through the smoke and flame even with their HUDs.

“Come on,” Buffy called, “lets get outta here!”

“Which way?” Fin asked as she rose to her knees still firing although there weren't that many Bugs still showing any fight.

“There's only one way for MI,” Buffy laughed, “FORWARD!”

Springing to her feet, Buffy ran through the smoke, flame and bug carcasses until she smashed through another wall and came out into an open area with a large bug hole in the middle of it. As soon as the two MI girls appeared warrior bugs seemed to boil out of the hole. The two women only had time to burn down a few of the attacking bugs before they were overwhelmed. Borne down by a wave of bug warriors, Buffy continued to fight ripping the attacking bugs apart with her slayer enhanced armoured hands. 

Beside her, Fin had also been pushed off her feet as she too fought the bugs with hands and feet. Buffy thought it was a little like falling through the branches of a tree with the added terror of seeing bug mandibles flash by her face plate as the bugs tried to snip off her head with their sharp pincers. So far the Bugs hadn't succeeded. As the first terror of coming into hand to hand combat with the bugs receded, Buffy's mind started to work again.

Why weren't the bugs firing? Normally when they got into hand to hand combat with MI, it seemed that bug doctrine was to keep using their weapons no matter how many of their own they killed. So, why weren't the bugs shooting? As Buffy crushed the brain casing of the bug attacking her in her armoured hand, she caught a glimpse of something large, grey and bloated being pulled from the bug hole by a bunch of worker bugs. The warriors weren't firing because they were worried about hitting something important like that ugly, big, grey bug.

Unfortunately Buffy didn't have time for more speculation because she was too busy fighting for her life. Another wave of warriors came at her and Buffy was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, she'd put a down payment on a farm. However, before the bugs hit her they were engulfed in a sea of fire and exploded in a cloud of smoky flame right in front of her.

“I totally can't trust you to like do anything by yourself, can I?” Harmony's voice came over Buffy's comms, “Sorry we took so long to like get here but we totally had problems of our own.”

“You don't say,” Buffy replied as she pushed a dead bug off of her and got back to her feet.

After picking up her hand flamer, Buffy watched as the rest of her squad broke the back of the bug assault. Bug warriors exploded as plasma bolts hit them or they went up in flame as they were engulfed by bursts of fire from flamers. Unfortunately the big, grey, ugly thing was totally destroyed when Jamie Boyle hit it with half-a-dozen 25mm explosive rounds from her light assault gun. Anyone wanting to find out what it was would have to scrape it off the scenery first.

_”Somewhere along the road, someone waits for me..._

“Okay people,” Buffy called as she heard the retrieval call over her comms, “fun's over...” she was almost sure she heard a groan of disappointment from the squad at her call, “withdrawn by teams back to the pick-up point.”

Standing over the entrance to the hole, Buffy took a gas canister from its clip on her left thigh, she twisted the cap off the end and watched for a moment as the orange coloured gas started to seep from the canister and form a pool around her feet. Tossing the gas bomb into the hole she watched as a couple of surviving workers started to convulse and die as the gas hit them.

“Game over, bugs,” Buffy called before she bounced away to rejoin her squad.

0=0=0=0


	23. Chapter 23

23.

By the time Buffy and the rest of Fifth Squad arrived at the retrieval shuttle, First Section had already set up interdiction around the vessel. However, no one would be going back up to the H Jones just yet. Ship's Sergeant O'Connor, now acting platoon leader, had pulled everyone back so the platoon could rearm, reorganise and evacuate their wounded and the people with damaged suits. Unfortunately, due to Lt Kutuzov's 'breakdown', there was an unusually high number of wounded and damaged suits.

“Okay,” Buffy called after receiving her instructions from O'Connor, “anyone injured or in a damage suit?”

Glancing at her HUD, Buffy saw that the squad scout, Daisy Kelly had a damaged suit. Daisy's comms had gone on the fritz, which although her suit was still capable of bouncing and fighting meant that she couldn't receive any instructions of send back data. Being the squad scout this basically meant she was hors de combat until her comms were back on line.

“You okay in there?” Buffy asked as she pressed her face plate against Daisy's so they could talk.

“I'm fine, Corporal,” Daisy replied, she sounded disappointed, “you're going to send me back up to the Jones aren't you?”

“Pointless you being down here with no comms,” Buffy replied.

“I could help guard something,” Daisy said hopefully, “I wouldn't need comms just to guard something, would I?”

“And what would happen if we had to get out quick?” Buffy asked the girl, she sounded close to tears at the prospect of being sent home before the battle was over. “You'd get left behind and I'd have to train up a new scout,” she smiled although the other girl probably couldn't see her face, “that's not going to happen because I've got a perfectly good scout already.”

“You think?” Daisy's voice sound a little more hopeful as she realised she was still wanted.

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, “now get aboard that shuttle and get that comms unit fixed, okay?”

“Roger that, Corporal.”

“And call me Snake on missions,” Buffy told her before pulling her face plate away and pushing the girl towards where the retrieval boat waited.

As she watched Daisy head for the boat, Buffy wondered and not for the first time, had she looked so young and lost when she'd joined the Marauders? The answer came to her in a second; no she hadn't. After hunting and fighting demons since she was fifteen she hadn't looked lost or innocent for a long, long time. Next she went over to where Harmony and Fin McCarthy were standing, Harmony was examining Fin's right arm.

“What's up?” Buffy asked; actually she didn't need to ask she could see.

The fingers on Fin's right gauntlet were all mangled up like she'd put her hand into an industrial strength mincing machine. Several of the seams in her armour on her right arm had popped open and her right shoulder joint looked 'wrong'. Frowning in the privacy of her helmet, Buffy moved in to take a closer look, she'd seen damage like this before.

“It's like, no good Snake,” Harmony said as Buffy inspected Fin's armour, “she'll have to be sent back to the Jones.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed; the last time she'd seen damage like this was on her own suit when she'd used her slayer strength to smash into that bug war machine on Thule. “Are you injured?” Buffy asked as she checked Fin's vitals, the read out indicated that painkillers had been administered.

“I think I broke a couple of fingers and dislocated my shoulder,” Fin replied, she sounded a little dreamy, a result of her suit having injected her with pain meds.

“Okay, we'll send you back to the Jones,” Buffy reassured her, “once the Doc sees you you'll be up and around again in a day or two looking for more Bugs to squish...so, how did this happen.”

“I must've hit a bug too hard,” Fin replied as she let Buffy guide her towards the boat.

“Yeah right,” Buffy replied not believing a word of Fin's story.

It didn't matter how hard you hit a bug or indeed anything else, the suit would always soak up the force of the hit from a normal strength blow. But if whoever was wearing the suit had more than normal human strength the suit couldn't handle it and things tended to give way...like fingers, seams and shoulder joints. Handing Fin over to a Navy Corpsman in a hard suit, Buffy had a very strong suspicion as to why Fin's juvenile records were sealed, she also wished that she had someone to talk to about all this.

It was as she was heading back to what remained of her squad that Buffy realised she did have someone to talk to, she had Harmony. All she now had to do was think up a good story to explain away her super-strength; telling Harmony about vampires and demons would probably end with a one way ticket to a nice room with really well padded walls. No, she wouldn't go that way, but she'd think of something else. First, however, they needed to finish the mission.

0=0=0=0

The mission was in fact completed by the end of the day. The Bug settlement on GJ-1214-4 was mainly an industrial site and had relatively few warriors guarding it. The Navy Intelligence officer aboard the Jones guestimated that there'd been fewer than five hundred warriors on the planet along with about twenty-five thousand workers. How the Navy came up with these numbers Buffy didn't know, maybe they cast rune stones like Willow and Tara used to. Or maybe they just picked a number at random and doubled it!

However the Navy came up with these figures the Navy intelligence guy suspected that the big-ugly-grey-bug that Buffy's squad had killed had been the brain-bug in charge of the Bug operations on GJ-1214-4. The intelligence officer congratulated Buffy and her squad on the kill, but asked that if next time they could try to capture the Bug and not splatter it all over the planet. No one had even clearly seen a brain-bug before let alone killed or captured one. Unfortunately the gun camera on Jamie Boyle's LAG was malfunctioning so there wasn't even any pictures of the Bug being blown away. However, DNA analysis of the remains seemed to suggest that the Intel officer was right in his assumptions.

After the last of the bug warriors had been hunted down and destroyed; without a brain to direct them the warriors tended to turn rogue. They were still very dangerous but they attacked without any form of plan and were relatively easy to shoot and kill. The workers were simply left to die off, again without a brain they were harmless animals with nothing to eat or drink, they'd starve to death within a week or start eating each other. Either way the bug threat on GJ-1214-4 had been eliminated. All the mining equipment was destroyed and the mines themselves had been demolished.

As had been suspected there were no survivors of the original human inhabitants of Dog-Pile, although their remains had been found and given a decent burial with full military honours. It didn't help the dead any, but it made the living feel just a little better.

0=0=0=0

Back aboard the Jones things went back to normal within a few days. Sandy O'Connor was confirmed as Acting Platoon Leader by Captain Gelson. The Captain also set up a Court of Enquiry to look into what had gone wrong on GJ-1214-4. Most of the platoons NCOs had to testify and Buffy found herself having to explain why she'd ordered a 'ground and freeze' before anyone else had noticed that something wrong. Explaining to the Captain that things just felt 'wrong', Buffy had shrugged helplessly and said that she couldn't explain it.

Captain Gelson had smiled a little before she suggested, 'women's intuition' and explained that on occasion she often 'felt' things were 'wrong' without any evidence to back up her feelings. The other officers of the court had muttered their agreement and Buffy was dismissed with everyone seemingly satisfied with her story.

After a couple of more days, Captain Gelson issued her findings which were then counter signed by the ship's medical officer. The Captain and the Court found that Lieutenant Kutuzov, MI, had suffered a nervous breakdown due to combat stress and overwork. He would be temporarily relieved of command until a full medical and physiological examination could be carried out at a star base or port. Until such time as he could be transferred off the H Jones he was to be restricted to the Sick Bay or his own room.

In a way, Buffy felt sorry for Kutuzov, on board ship he'd seemed a pretty decent guy and yes there had been that thing about the Mister Universe contest, but other than that he seemed like a good guy, it just went to show... Now Kutuzov would never become a Citizen, he'd be sent home with a medical discharge and spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been.

0=0=0=0

It was about a week after Captain Gelson had delivered her findings about what had happened on GJ-1214-4 and Buffy and Harmony were hard at work in the armoury. While Harmony was doing an inventory of all the ordinance expended on GJ-1214-4, Buffy was still trying to fix the 'sticky' rocket launcher. If it wasn't for the fact that she knew the launcher and all their other weapons had been fabricated by robots, she'd have believed that the launcher was a 'lemon' and had been made on a Friday afternoon just before everyone at the factory had gone home for the weekend.

Whatever the reason for the launcher's refusal to work properly, Buffy couldn't fix it. Putting down her tools in disgust she went over to the coffee dispenser and poured two cups of hot, brown, liquid that tasted vaguely of coffee. Buffy promised herself that next time she was in a port she was going to buy a proper coffee machine and some real coffee. Putting a cup down on her work bench and after sipping her own brew, Buffy called over to where Harmony was working; the time had come to let Harmony in on her (and she suspected Fin's) little secret.

“Hey Harm,” Buffy called, “take a break will you, I've got something to tell you.”

“Okay,” Harmony put down her computerised clipboard and walked over to join Buffy, “like, what's up?”

“I've got a secret I need to tell you, but you've got to promise not to tell anyone else,” Buffy explained conspiratorially.

“Oooooh!” Harmony groaned, “I hate keeping secrets, but now I know there's a secret to keep I can't not totally know what it is...” Harmony took a deep breath, “...sometimes I really, really hate you Buffy Summers!”

“Why!?” Buffy demanded just a little shocked at her friend's admission.

“Well, I mainly hate you when you tell me stuff that's a secret,” Harmony explained.

“Not so long ago you were complaining when I didn't tell you stuff,” Buffy pointed out.

“Oh My God!” Harm squealed, “You've not been sleeping around and got yourself totally knocked up have you?”

“NO!” Buffy cried, “A thousand times, no. Now shut up and listen.”

“Are you gay?” Harmony asked; a little too hopefully for Buffy's peace of mind.

“Harm...” Buffy growled.

“Sorry...”

“Look,” Buffy started to speak before before Harmony could make any more suggestions as to what Buffy's secret might be, “you know I got injured on Klendathu, right?”

“Yeah,” Harmony looked concerned and nodded her head, “you said you got knocked out or something.”

“Yeah that's right,” Buffy confirmed.

“So?” Harmony lifted an eyebrow questioningly.

“Well something else happened when I was knocked out...” Buffy explained slowly.

“What...?” Harmony asked just as her eyes opened wide in shock, “Oh God, Buffy the Bugs didn't put something in your brain and its totally taking you over!”

For someone who wasn't supposed to be overly bright, Harmony certainly had an active imagination.

“No...” Buffy gave Harmony a puzzled look, “...at least I don't think they did, anyway I didn't notice what had happened 'til I got to hospital on Sanctuary.”

Buffy paused to let Harmony come out with another of her wild theories.

“I've got nothing,” Harmony shrugged, “so, like, what happened?”

“Look,” Buffy looked around searching for something to demonstrate with, after a couple of seconds she found a length of locking bar that was used to secure the crates the weapons came in. It was tough but it wouldn't give her slayer strength much of a test, she handed the bar to Harmony, “here try and bend this.”

Taking the bar off Buffy, Harmony did her best to try and bend it, of course she failed.

“I hope this isn't a trick,” Harmony sulked as she handed the bar back to Buffy.

“No Harm!” Buffy read the look on Harmony's face and had the feeling that Harmony had spent a lot of her life being the butt of a lot of cruel practical jokes played on her at school, children could be so cruel, “I'd never try and trick you, I just wanted you to see that what I'm going to show you _isn't_ a trick...watch.”

Taking the bar in her hands Buffy bent it easily into a big circle.

“Wow,” Harmony gasped as she didn't believe what she was seeing, “that was totally neat, how'd you do that? I don't mind that sorta trick.”

“It's not a trick,” Buffy explained as she handed the bar back to Harmony so she could try to un-bend it. “After I came back from Klendathu I was a lot stronger than I was before.”

Buffy had come up with this story over the last couple of weeks. It had to be convincing or at least plausible.

“Oh...” Harmony studied the bar in her hands obviously thinking very hard, “...so, you're trying to tell me that getting knocked out on Klendathu made you really strong?”

“Something like that...” put like that, Buffy did think her story sounded pretty lame.

“Okay!” Harmony smiled as she believed Buffy's story completely, after all Buffy was her 'best friend forever' why would she lie to her; it was now her job to support Buffy in anyway she could.

“Oh Harmony,” Buffy reached out and pulled her friend into a hug, “you're the best friend a girl with super-strength could have.”

“Hey!” Harmony cried, “You can't fly like that guy in those ancient comics can you?”

“Only when I'm wearing my suit,” Buffy laughed as she let go of Harmony.

“Pity,” Harmony sighed, “that would've been way cool and totally awesome.”

“Whatever,” Buffy became serious again, “the thing is you can never tell anyone about how strong I am.”

“I can't?” Harmony cried obviously in distress, “Not even Cordy?”

“Well, maybe Cordy but only when we next see her,” Buffy pointed out.

“So why don't you want anyone to know?” Harmony asked, “I'd have thought you'd want everyone to know...”

“No,” Buffy shook her head firmly and watched the fear and concern in Harmony's eyes as she started to work things out for herself.

“Oh My god, Buffy,” Harmony's hand went to her mouth as if trying to stop the words she wanted to say from escaping, “I totally love the Federation an'all but...”

“You got it, Harm,” Buffy replied sadly, “There's still some people who'd want to take me away and find out how I 'work'...”

“I'd never see you again!” Tears started to form in Harmony's eyes at the thought of losing her dearest friend, “I'll never tell anyone, Buffy, ever, even if they tried to make me tell!”

“I know you wouldn't, Harm,” once again Buffy wondered how two people who were basically the same person could be so different; she could never imagine herself having this conversation with Past-Harmony even before she'd turned into a vampire. “But we, I've, got to be careful...”

“Totally,” Harmony breathed quietly.

“And I need you to help me keep an eye on Fin.”

“Fin?” Harmony asked a little puzzled, “You mean our Fin?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded.

“She's not one of these people who might take you away is she?”

“No Harm, I don't think she is,” Buffy took a deep breath, “I think she's like me.”

0=0=0=0


	24. Chapter 24

24.

“Sixty-nine! Forty-two! Four! Hut-hut-hut!” Harmony called before passing the ball back to Buffy between her widely spread legs. 

Catching the ball and gathering it to her chest, Buffy started to run to her right. As soon as she saw the opposing team's defensive line start to shift to cover her, she jinked left and ran at the nearest defender lowering her shoulder as she did so. Hitting the guy in the stomach she heard his breath whistle from his lungs as he bounced off her to fall gasping onto the gym floor. Clear of any interference now, Buffy sprinted for the goal line easily avoiding an opposing player who tried to tackle her.

“TOUCH DOWN!” Buffy yelled triumphantly as she touched the ball down behind First Squad's goal line.

Looking up at the score board, Buffy saw that Fifth Squad was still losing five to two but now at least it didn't look like so much of a white-wash. Picking up the ball, she turned and headed back towards the centre of the gym for the restart, she tossed the ball to Corporal Strong, the squad leader of First Squad before taking up position in the centre of Fifth Squad's defensive line.

“Remember guys,” Buffy called as she prepared herself to receive First Squad's charge, “grab their legs, they can't run if you're holding their ankles together!”

This would normally be good advice, but First Squad were eight of the toughest hombres in the Marauders while Fifth Squad were...well, look at it anyway you wanted, Fifth Squad were a bunch of 'girls'. Yes, they were all tough, fit and well trained but they were still 'girls' and even with Buffy to lead them they were still going to get their collective butts handed to them on a plate. Which was why Buffy had challenged Strong and his squad to a game of 'Death Ball'.

Death Ball was as old as the MI, in fact it had been invented by some sadistic MI Physical Training Instructor as a way of channelling the natural aggression of the average MI trooper into a sport that could be played on any open area between almost any number of players. The game had its roots in Rugby, North American Football and Medieval village football, but wasn't like any of them...with the possible exception of Medieval village football.

The rules for Death Ball were quite simple, in fact there really was only one rule; you scored a goal by getting the ball behind your opponent's goal line...by any means short of killing the opposition. Most units had their own 'House Rules' like; no biting or scratching, no broken bones (dislocations were okay), no eye gouging and so one. However, kneeing a guy in the family jewels was okay as was elbowing a girl in her boob, although most players mitigated these underhand acts by wearing protective armour over their most sensitive parts.

The reason that Buffy had challenged Strong and his guys was to try and force Fin McCarthy to reveal her 'slayerism'. So far it hadn't worked; Buffy had hoped that by putting Fin in a position where her squad was going to be pummelled into the ground, she'd start to use her powers to help her squad-mates out. Yes of course Buffy was using her slayer strength and agility but their was only so much she could do without giving herself away.

So far she'd been able to convince people that; 'a' she was stronger than she looked; 'b' that she knew what she was doing when it came to knocking guys who weighed twice what she did onto their asses and finally; 'c' she was lucky, so lucky in fact that some of the things she could do looked impossible or at least merely magical.

“...Hut-hut-hut!” PFC Wilkes passed the ball back to Cpl Strong who grabbed it out of the air and started to run...straight towards Buffy! This was something she hadn't expected, she'd guessed he would go to her left and his right, that's what he did eighty percent of the time, this full on charge was something new. Knocking Harmony and Kate O'Sullivan out of the way Strong came at her full bore yelling at the top of his lungs as he did so.

Buffy had about two seconds to decide what she was going to do before Strong hit her and stomped her into the deck. Of course it would be easy for her to go full-on slayer and send this guy flying, but then there would be questions about how she, a girl of five-foot-two could throw a six-foot-four guy made of muscle and bone across the gym...some people might even start to accuse her of cheating!

Waiting until Strong was almost on top of her, Buffy grabbed his left arm, he'd been going to use it to push her out of the way or knock her down. Holding on tightly as Strong started to push her backwards, Buffy twisted Strong's arm as she used her left leg to sweep away his legs. Crashing to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, Buffy and Strong rolled across the floor in one direction as the ball bounced away in the other.

Running in from the rear, Mary Ryan dodged from side to side as she mostly avoided the grasp of First Squad's offensive line. Scooping up the ball and still weaving and jinking for all she was worth she ran as if all the demons of hell were chasing her for the goal line. Just as she was about to dive for the line someone tackled her and brought her down a couple of feet short of the line. 

Wriggling free a little, Mary used her right gym shoe clad foot to kick her opponent in the face. Blood went everywhere as she broke the guy's nose. Finding herself free, Mary scrambled for the line and touched the ball down.

“TOUCH DOWN!” Fifth Squad screamed like the cheerleaders most of them had once been, “FIVE-THREE! FIVE-THREE!” they chanted as if it was them who'd scored five goals instead of three.

This was the highest score Fifth Squad had achieved against First Squad, normally they'd score once a game, but today it looked as if the gods were smiling on them.

“Looks like you're losing it, old man,” Buffy laughed as she helped Strong to his feet.

“Nah,” Strong shook his head, “your guys must be on combat stims, where'd you get 'em Snake?”

“Ha!” Buffy laughed in Strong's face, “You're just a bunch of over the hill losers.”

The trick to 'winding people up' was to claim that you were winning even when you were actually losing. By the way Strong's face was slowly turning purple, Buffy reckoned she was succeeding, angry people made mistakes...mistakes she could use to her own advantage. Another thing that angry people did was not notice until a long time later that the five-foot-two blonde was doing stuff she shouldn't possibly be able to do. Unfortunately, all Buffy's needling of Strong was for naught. Before they'd even had a chance to restart the game, 'Condition Yellow' was called over the ship wide PA.

“Damn-it,” Buffy called as everyone started to relax.

“Next time, Snake,” Strong called good naturedly, “next time its twenty-nil!”

“In your dreams,” Buffy called back before leading her squad to the showers.

'Condition Yellow' was the call for all MI to stop what they were doing, get cleaned up and be ready for new orders in about sixty minutes time. It usually meant that the Jones had received new orders for another combat mission. One of the good things about interstellar warfare was you usually had plenty of time to get ready for the next piece of action.

Stripping off and walking into the showers, Buffy and Harmony stood a little apart from the rest of their squad who were now comparing bruises with the guys in First Squad. To an outside observer, Buffy and Harmony looked like a couple of NCOs discussing the possibilities for the next mission. They were in fact discussing Fin McCarthy's apparent and total lack of slayer powers.

“I suppose I could have been wrong,” Buffy admitted, “maybe she's not like me.”

“Whatever,” Harmony replied, “y'know the armoury officer put the damage to her suit down to a manufacturing defect...”

“No way,” Buffy shook her head, “and what does an eighteen-year-old Navy Midshipwoman know about anything?”

It had always puzzled Buffy why a Navy officer was nominally in charge of the armoury which was actually run for and by the MI.

“True,” Harmony shrugged as she examined a livid bruise on her ribs under her left breast, “maybe we should just ask her.”

“What!?” Buffy laughed, “That would be way too easy and no fun at all and would you please stop doing that?”

“Stop doing what?” Harmony asked as she looked up from her bruised ribs and into Buffy's eyes.

“You know,” Buffy shifted uncomfortably, “totally squeezing your boob out of the way like that, its sexy and your starting to turn me on...I've been on the bounce way too long...its been like forever since I had anything inside me that wasn't battery powered.”

“Turning you on, huh?” Harmony giggled as she ran her hands seductively over her breasts, “Should I like, totally be on the look out for you trying to sneak into my bunk after lights out?”

“No!” Buffy cried back, “Not that I don't find you attractive, but...”

“I know,” Harmony sighed sadly, “the 'no screwing rule', which I still think is totally lame.”

“Well,” Buffy continued as she tried to ignore Harmony's very appealing body, which was only about eighteen inches away from her own; she dialled back on the temperature of her shower, “when you're squad leader you can make up your own rules, until then...”

“Yeah, until then we like all have to live like nuns,” Harmony sulked.

“It's for the best Harm,” Buffy said quietly.

“So you say,” Harmony agreed, “but sometimes...”

“Yeah...” Buffy paused for a heartbeat before asking, “...you got any spare batteries, I've run out.”

“Already!” Harmony gasped, adding, “Slut!”

“What can I say?” Buffy shrugged, “I'm totally just a battery lovin' ho!”

“Hey!” Harmony's face brighten a little, she'd obviously had what she thought was a good idea, “If we could find a couple of transformers maybe we could run everything off the ship's power.”

“Yeah!” Buffy smiled, “Great idea, Harm it would sure beat going to manual override.”

“I'll go down to engineering and see what I can pick up later,” Harmony volunteered. 

“You know we've sorta got off the subject of Fin, here,” Buffy pointed out.

“Whatever,” Harmony shrugged as she washed the soap suds from her body, “this is more important than whether or not she'd got super strength.”

“Good old Harm,” Buffy laughed gently, “I can always rely on you to keep me focused on what's truly important in life.”

“Totally!” Harmony agreed with a firm nod of the head.

0=0=0=0

Fifty minutes later, Buffy and her squad were back in the gym, but this time it wasn't for a nice relaxing game of Death Ball, it was to find out what the Condition Yellow was all about. 

The Navy still had to use courier ships to send orders to its vessels and the MI they were carrying. It was much faster than than radio; a message sent by radio could take years to reach its target. A courier ship could be waiting in system or at a transit point when the target ship came out of Cherenkov drive. Information could be flashed to a ship in seconds allowing the courier to move on to its next destination. It was faster than radio but it still took time; a ship was pretty isolated from the rest of the galaxy when it was out on patrol. Buffy had often thought that all sorts of stuff could happen; like Earth could have been invaded and captured weeks or even months before they heard about it on the Jones.

Of course there were some weird old space legends like the one about a corvette transport that came back off mission to find its base had been destroyed (in these stories the reason for whatever disaster had befallen whatever ship was never fully explained). The corvette had then spent months trying to find out what was going on. Once again when you looked closely at these stories they never made very much sense. The best story and the only one Buffy really believed in was about the 'Lost Platoon' on Sanctuary. A platoon had gone on leave when their ship was to be decommissioned. The navy crew was reassigned to new ships but the MI had sort of been forgotten about. They'd spent a year on leave enjoying all the facilities Sanctuary had for tired MI before someone remembered about them, of course this had been pre-war.

“TEN-HUN!” the call from the doorway jogged Buffy out of these musing; standing up with the rest of the platoon she turned to see Acting Platoon Leader O'Connor walk down the aisle between first and second sections and towards the far end of the gym.

“Okay,” Sandy called as he turned to face the platoon, “everyone sit down.” Sandy O'Connor waited for the Marauders to sit down and get themselves comfortable. “As you've probably already guessed we've just received new combat orders...” Sandy paused to let the murmur of conversation die down a little before he continued, “On a happier note we've also received about a ton of personnel mail and a load of new entertainment crystals.”

This news was received with a loud cheer.

“Okay,” Sandy chuckled, “time to get back to work. Like I say we've got a new combat mission. It'll take us about a week to get where we're going so we'll have plenty of time to get everything up and running and for everyone to go through the simulators a couple of times.” Sandy looked at the floor for a moment as he considered his next words, “The Marauders will form the landing force for a small naval task force which will be operating against enemy forces on RV-3490-3 better known as Summerworld...”

Buffy frowned and she could see a lot of puzzled looks on the faces of NCOs and troopers close by; she was no expert but systems prefixed 'RV' were well away from any bug action, she wondered what the hell was going on.

“I can see by your faces that most of you have worked out that RV-3490-3 is well away from the front and no the bugs haven't broken through.” Sandy paused and shook his head sadly, “I'm sorry to have to inform you that we won't be fighting bugs...we'll be fighting humans!”

Sandy's next few words were drowned out by the buzz of excited chatter that swept through the gym.

“...it appears,” Sandy raised his voice so he could be heard as the conversations in the gym slowly died away, “it appears that a local despot has taken control of RV-3490-3 and has broken away from the Federation. Now those of you who studied even basic constitutional law will know that normally the Federation doesn't bother about whether a planet wants to remain part of the Federation as long as its all done legal and above board and after a plebiscite of the planetary population.”

Sandy paused for a moment.

“Our information is that this General Nelson Sparks, simply seized control and has already sent large numbers of people to work camps,” Sandy looked out over his troops, “We and the Navy will enter the RV-3490 system and ascertain the truth of these reports and if necessary return Summerworld to the government of the Terran Federation.”

Again excited conversations broke out all over the gym, no one could remember a similar situation happening. The Federation wasn't perfect, but it was better than a lot of the forms of government dreamed up over humanity’s long and bloody history. To have a planet break away in this illegal fashion was beyond almost everyone's experience.

“Full background data has been downloaded into the ship's computers so I suggest you study it,” Sandy called once again quietening the platoon, “An initial combat plan will be out within twenty-four hours. Until then I suggest that everyone assumes we'll be doing a combat drop against a hostile planet, now, dismiss!”

“TEN-HUN!” Someone called and everybody sprang to attention as Sandy left the gym.

0=0=0=0

A couple of hours later, Buffy was lying in her bunk after reading the background data on Summerworld. It appeared that General Spark's coupé had been precipitated by an ecological disaster; to be precise, a sudden onset ice age. A lot of RV3490-3's most productive farming areas had been covered with several feet of snow for the last couple of years. People had begun to starve and the planetary government was incapable of forming a workable survival plan. This was when General Sparks had, instead of contacting the Federation for emergency relief, taken control and started to send 'useless mouths' to work camps. Of course most of the reports were unconfirmed but the Federation was still taking it seriously enough to send a small task force to see what was going on. There was as good a chance that Buffy and her mates would find themselves doing disaster relief as they would fighting.

Whatever, Buffy signed as she lay back on her pillow. What it all boiled down to was; whatever happened the next week was going to be very busy. So, while she had the time, she thought she'd go through the mail that she'd received. Most of it looked like stuff from her bank telling her how much money she did or didn't have. There was a load of junk mail...even in space people still sent you junk mail. There were a couple of letters from Cordy, which she'd keep for later and one from the Salvation Army.

Holding the message card from the Sally-Anne in her hand, Buffy signed sadly, it was probably telling her that there was still no trace of her sister. That it was time for her to admit that Dawn had died along with everyone else in Sunnydale when the bugs had flattened it. The Salvation Army were very good at finding people, even if those people didn't want to be found. They'd had many years of experience at it and if they said that someone was dead or otherwise 'gone' you could take it to the bank.

Slipping the card into her overhead computer screen, Buffy watched as the Salvation Army logo came up on the screen before it cleared and was replaced by the face of her case worker. Buffy listened to the man as he made his report, explaining everything the Sally-Anne had done. Just when Buffy thought that the guy was about to tell her that Dawn was definitely dead, he smiled and told her that Dawn was alive and well and living in a little Northern Californian town called Charming where she'd been taken in by a local family.

The case officer went on about how there'd been a mix-up about where Dawn had been evacuated to and how she'd had temporary amnesia, but Buffy didn't hear any of this, she was too busy crying with joy. Her little sister was alive and well and assuming that she lived through the rest of her tour, Buffy would be able to go back to Earth and see her again.

0=0=0=0


	25. Chapter 25

25.

**Mayfair, RV-3490-3.**

Drifting listlessly through the fetid alleys of ‘Mayfair’, Amber Moore wondered what her old school friends were doing right now. Probably sitting down to their Sunday lunches, she told herself as her tummy rumbled. Looking at her arm she sighed at how thin it looked, she’d always been slim but now she was thin bordering on emaciated. Sundays were the worst; you couldn’t work on a Sunday so you lost a day’s pay. However little that might be it was still money with which you could buy food.

The other six days a week, Amber and her mother would clean the homes of the rich in Mayfair proper, every little helped, she told herself. Looking up from her thoughts of work and food, she found herself standing next to the row of standpipes grudgingly set up by the town council to supply water to Mayfair’s shanty-town inmates.

As usual the area was a quagmire of mud and filth, a few children played lethargically in the puddles that bordered the area. Amber wondered when the first cases of typhoid or cholera would break out. They’d been lucky so far, the weather was cool so no serious diseases had broken out in the camp. But the instant they did she knew that the authorities would seal the place up tight. When that day came she and everyone else would probably die and the town council would bulldoze the place flat and say ‘good riddance’. 

The stupid thing was that she didn’t have to be here, she could walk out of the shanty-town any time she wanted. All she had to do was walk into any Social Centre and say that she wanted to accept General Sparks as her Leader and all this would be over. The State would accept her back into society; welcome her with open arms even. No doubt they’d find her a good husband so she could spend the rest of her life having babies and praising The Leader.

The trouble was, Amber didn’t want that, okay, babies were fun and had her life gone on as before she’d no doubt have had a couple herself. But if giving up on her principles meant a life of squeezing out a kid every couple of years she’d stay right were she was thank-you. As for praising The Leader, that was all just fooie. Surely any real Leader worth the name didn’t expect people to be grovelling at his feet telling him how fantastic he was all the time. If he did expect people to cringe before him, she for one wasn’t going to play his silly games and she'd withhold her ‘praise’ until he changed his ways and did something ‘praiseworthy’.

It had all started to change not long after the weather had started to turn bad. President Oakland had died suddenly and General Sparks had taken over. It was like she’d suddenly woken up on a different planet. The changes had started just after that, yet no one had complained because it was all for the 'public good'. First all those the General referred to as ‘dissenters’ and ‘degenerates’ started to be taken away in the middle of the night and sent to ‘re-education’ camps. Eventually the security police had come for Amber and her family too. Both her mother and father had lost their jobs because they were outspoken democrats. Although her mother and herself weren’t particularly political her father was. Amber and her mother felt that they should back him up and so they'd been thrown out of their own home and forced to live in this cold, stinking, shanty town near the railroad yards.

Turning away from the standpipes, Amber walked between the tumble down shacks with their cardboard walls and roofs made of plastic sheets; she found herself thinking of her old friends again. One of her old teacher's had been declared an ‘Undesirable’ but he'd managed to avoid the security police and rumour had it he'd managed to get off planet some how. Pausing in her mental wanderings, Amber watched as the bodies of an old couple were carried from their hovel and taken to be buried on the edge of the camp. The authorities didn’t let you out just to bury someone, the only time you left Mayfair's shanty-town was to work or to go to a Re-education Camp. 

Coming to a halt and looking around, Amber found she’d reached the edge of the camp; she looked at the track that led to the road that would take her into Mayfair proper. It was only a five minute walk. Five minutes, ten at the very most and she could be back to a life of relative comfort and enough to eat…if she left behind her family, her principles and everything that went to make up Amber Moore. No, she decided, that would be like dying; she’d rather be half starved than have a full belly and be someone she wasn’t. With a wistful sigh, Amber turned around and walked back to the little shack where she lived with her mother and father.

0=0=0=0

“You know,” Amber turned to her mother as she helped her wash out their few spare clothes in the cold water of a stream near the shanty-town, “I don’t think that Mrs Ledger knows how to look after that child of hers.”

“You don’t?” Leah, Amber’s mother, asked as she rang out an old dress she’d been given, “What makes you say that?”

“Well,” Amber thought for a moment before replying, “she hardly ever plays with the kid; in fact she mostly leaves him with that nanny of hers. The poor kid’s already getting confused as to who his real mother is.”

“Yes I’ve noticed that too,” Leah nodded her head slowly, she may have to clean other people’s homes for a living now but she was still a Psychologist at heart. “There’ll be plenty of emotional problems for that one later on.”

“Yeah,” Amber agreed with a laugh.

Sharing a little bitter amusement, Leah and Amber went back to their washing. Before Sparks had come to power Amber and her mother hadn't had the closest of mother-daughter relationships. To be frank, Leah had looked on Amber as a sort of sociology experiment, while Amber had grown, from need, to become more and more independent. It was only when things had started to go wrong with their world that Amber and her mother had started to grow together. They still weren’t a typical mother and daughter, they were more like best friends.

“LOOK!” Amber pointed to the men in green-grey uniforms who where running around the perimeter of the little shanty-town.

Holding on to each other, Amber and Leah watched as the little groups of soldiers came to a halt, turned and trotted towards the tumble down shacks with riot batons in their hands and plastic shields on their arms.

“What’s going on?” Amber asked her mother.

“I…” Leah frowned for a moment as several scenarios flashed through her mind, none of them ended well, “...I don’t know…maybe they’ve come to shut the place down.”

“Dad!?” Amber looked at her mother just before they started to run towards their own little hut.

As they got closer to the rickety shacks and the dirty little alleys that made up Mayfair's shanty-town, they could hear shouting and the sound of whistles being blown. Here and there one of the shanty-town’s residents would run from between the hovels and make for the cover of the stockyard or the little stream where the two women had until recently been doing their laundry. Running between the shacks and occasionally colliding with screaming, panicking people, Amber and Leah fought to get home. Turning a corner between two hovels made out of cardboard boxes, Amber ran straight into the waiting arms of a soldier.

“Hey Sarge!” cried the soldier, he appeared to be very happy in his work, “I’ve got one!”

“Get offa me!” Amber struggled in the man’s arms but he was too strong and she couldn’t get free.

“Amber!” her mother cried out in alarm.

Struggling to see her mother, Amber saw her being held by another soldier just as a third man joined the group.

“What y’think Sarge?” asked the soldier who was holding on to the struggling Amber.

‘Sarge’ gave the two captives a cursory examination; he pointed his baton at Amber.

“Keep that one,” he told the soldier holding Amber around the waste, “let the other one go.”

“Come on, girl,” the soldier took hold of Amber’s arm tightly and started to drag her away.

“WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HER?” Leah demanded as the soldier holding her let go and pushed her to one side.

“None of your business,” ‘Sarge’ told her as he held his baton just under Leah’s nose, “now go home and don’t cause any trouble.”

“MOM!” Amber tried to brake free but the soldier grabbed hold of her more tightly and twisted her arm painfully behind her back.

“Amber!” Leah tried to fight her way passed the soldiers, but ‘Sarge’ hit her with his baton.

“I warned you,” he told Leah as she crouched on the floor clutching the bloody wound on the side of her head. “Look,” Sarge sounded almost apologetic, “ya kid's not going to be hurt, she’ll be okay, better than being here anyways…so go home will ya?”

“Mom!” Amber reached for her mother but was pulled roughly away; the last she ever saw of her mother was of her kneeling in the dirt with blood on her hands and tears streaming down her dirty face.

0=0=0=0

“Look,” the soldier who’d caught Amber pulled her towards the rear of a waiting truck, “you want some advice?”

“NO!” Amber would have spat in the man's face if her mouth hadn’t been so dry.

“Well, y’goin’ to get it anyway,” the soldier let go of her arm. “Don’t fight, do as you’re told and you’ll be fine,” the soldier frowned, “no one wants to hurt you.”

For a moment Amber could see genuine concern in the young man’s eyes and she almost believed him…almost.

“Now get in the truck,” he pointed with his baton at the back of the truck just in case Amber didn’t know what a truck was.

Hesitating for a moment, Amber glanced around the windswept yard where about half a dozen trucks were lined up. Other soldiers were pulling reluctant people towards the backs of the vehicles. Some were being loaded with young men while the others were loaded with young women. There were soldiers all around each holding a gun, looking at the alert young men, Amber gave up any hope she might have entertained about escaping. Slowly she turned and climbed into the back of the truck.

“Remember what I said,” called the soldier who’d caught her, “you’ll be fine, honest.”

0=0=0=0

By the time the vehicle left the shanty-town it was standing room only in the back of the truck. Amber guessed there had to be thirty women crammed into the back of the vehicle plus about a dozen children of various ages. Most of the women and all of the children were crying as the canvas cover over the rear of the truck was tied down and the vehicle pulled away. Having planted herself in the corner of the cargo bay at the front of the truck, Amber held on tightly as the truck bounced across the uneven ground and then out onto what was probably a main road. It was cold and dark in the back of the truck and there were far too many people trapped in there with her. Sometimes, when the truck braked everyone would stumble towards the front of the vehicle and Amber would feel like she was being crushed.

“Be careful of the children,” someone called out.

This had the effect of making people sort themselves out and stop concentrating on their own miseries. After a little shuffling about, the young women got themselves organised so it was not so much like a football scrimmage in the back of the truck and most of them could actually sit down. After what seemed like hours but couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes or so, the truck bounced twice in rapid succession; Amber guessed they’d just crossed a railway line and then came to a halt. After a moment or two the canvas was unlaced and opened and bright but cold sunlight flooded the rear of the truck.

“Everybody out!” came a harsh male voice as the women blinked their eyes in the light.

Slowly everybody jumped down from the truck. Looking around, Amber found herself in a large compound. This one had a high wire fence all around it with great rolls of barbed wire on top. There were guard towers and sentries everywhere, Amber’s heart started to beat faster as she recognised what this looked like. In a daze she felt herself being pushed roughly into ranks with the other women. Looking around in growing panic she saw the children being ushered away by young women in nurses uniforms; no doubt, she told herself, they were being taken away to be experimented on.

For a moment, Amber considered running. Should she throw herself at one of the guards in the vain hope of grabbing his weapon and taking a few of the bastards with her before she was killed? Or maybe she should run for the fence and hope they shot her as she tried to break out. Instead she just stood in ranks with the other women and cursed herself for being a coward.

“Alright, listen up!” called the soldier who stood in front of the frightened women, “First we’re going to give you a shower and medical examination. Then you’ll be issued with new clothes and bedding before we assign you to a barracks. Lastly you’ll be fed before lights out.” The soldier paused and looked at the women, “Remember, if you do as you’re told you’ll be fine…you don’t want to know what’ll happen if you don’t…now, turn to your left.”

“Yeah,” Amber muttered quietly, she'd studied ancient Earth history at school, she knew what this looked and sounded like, “I bet that's what the SS said too.”

The women turned raggedly to the left and started to stumble forward at the soldier’s word of command. Finding herself about six women down from the front of the column and in what had been the rear rank, Amber was able to study her surroundings as they marched across the compound. Up ahead she could see another high fence with a number of long, low, wooden huts beyond. The wood of the hut’s walls was new and a sort of straw yellow colour while the roofs were black with pitch. There were more guard towers, but there didn’t appear to be that many soldiers around, obviously whoever was in charge didn’t expect much trouble. The head of the column changed direction slightly and Amber saw they were heading towards a gateway set into the fence that separated the compound from the camp. There was a big sign over the gate, her eyes grew wide and she shivered with both cold and fear as she saw what was written on it.

‘Work is Freedom’, proclaimed the sign. Amber felt the hot tears start to run down her face as they were marched through the gate. Ahead of them lay a big brick built building with a tall chimney at the far end. That would be the gas chambers and crematorium, she told herself all the while wishing she’d had the courage to go down fighting when she’d had the chance. No one who’d read any of the myths and legends of old Earth could ever forget what the Nazis had put over the gates to their concentration camps; 'Arbeit macht frei', ‘work shall set you free’.

The women were led into the brick building and then into a long room with low wooden benches and a concrete floor, here they were told to strip and several men with electric hair clippers walked up and down the lines of quietly sobbing women and shaved their heads. Bald and naked the women were hustled through into another chamber where each woman was given a bar of soap and a washing flannel.

Walking through into the shower room, Amber’s eyes picked out every detail of the tiled floor and walls, there were big shower heads that hung down from the ceiling on the ends of pipes. Each shower head had a long chain connected to a valve on the pipe, obviously there to make the gas chamber look more like a real shower. Amber smelt the fresh paint of the place and wondered if she was amongst its first victims.

“Oh god,” she whispered softly to herself; this was it, this was the end, “I’m eighteen, I don’t want to die.”

Hearing the door slam shut behind her, Amber looked around at the other women and girls who huddled under the shower heads. Although the room was crowded she felt completely alone. If only her mother was here, at least they could comfort each other as they died together. At any moment now the gas would seep into the chamber; she’d die coughing and gasping for air; alone. There was a loud *CLUNK!* and the pipes started to vibrate.

Amber screamed and her heart nearly stopped as the warm water hit her head. Gasping for breath she looked up at the shower head above her as it dumped gallons of pleasantly warm water all over her. Laughing with relief and feeling reborn she started to wash herself clean. 

0=0=0=0

Spooning the oatmeal-like food into her mouth, Amber looked back on the events of the day. After the ‘shower from hell’ a door at the other end of the shower chamber had opened as the water was cut off. The women were ushered into another room where they were given towels and allowed to dry themselves off. Next they were taken through yet another door where they were given clothes. One set of underwear, one cheep cotton dress in a fetching shade of grey, one pair of cheap canvas shoes.

After they’d all dressed they were marched to another building where they were poked and prodded by army medics who asked them about there general health. Finally they were marched to yet another building where each woman received a thin foam rubber mattress and a couple of synthetic wool blankets. Clutching their bedding they were led to one of the barrack huts. Here they were told to leave their bedding on one of the bunks that lined the walls then follow their guide, an older soldier who’d directed them since they’d come out of the shower, to the cookhouse.

Each woman had been given a bowl full of some grey, porridge-like stuff and a wooden spoon. Amber sat at one of the long tables that filled the eating area of the hall and tasted the ‘gloop’ suspiciously. It wasn’t so bad she decided after a mouthful or two. Apart from tasting slightly sweet it didn’t really taste of anything. But when she’d finished eating she felt fuller than she had done in a very long time. In fact she had difficulty finishing her portion but the soldier in charge insisted that she eat everything. Perhaps, thought Amber, she really would be okay here. To be honest, apart from scaring her half to death, the worst thing the camp authorities had done to her was shave her hair off.

After their meal they were all taken back to their barrack block and locked in for the night. Chatting with the other women while she made up her bed, Amber felt fairly confident that the camp authorities weren’t going to murder them all in their sleep. Why would they bother with all the other stuff if they were just going to kill them? What really worried, Amber as she lay down on her little bed was what they were actually here for?

0=0=0=0


	26. Chapter 26

10.

“Summerworld,” Buffy chuckled humourlessly, “now that's ironic.”

Lying in her bunk she was reviewing the recently updated data on RV-3490-3, they'd be entering the RV-3490 system tomorrow and she wanted to be on the bounce with current affairs.

“Okay...” Buffy pressed a couple of icons on her computer screen and was rewarded by having a screen full of text pop up, “...right, here we go, back to school.”

The main colonisation effort on Summerworld had occurred just over fifty years ago, although there had been a much smaller expedition to the planet about twenty-five years prior to that. The initial colonisation hadn't worked out due to internal differences amongst the colonist. Eventually some had left while those that remained had stagnated and even regressed a little. 

The second wave of colonists were much more organised and better equipped. Within five years of landing they'd set up a thriving colony and the base population was starting to expand rapidly. By the time the ice age had begun there was a population of five to six million (figures weren't too precise) with an economy that supplied the colonists with most of everything they needed. There was some equipment and goods they still had to import, but these were mostly new industrial machinery and computer systems.

There was a small system defence force which, being so far away from any Bug threat, mainly spent its time on search and rescue missions or hunting down the occasional pirate who was chancing his luck raiding the mines in the system's asteroid belt. Summerworld had a regular army of about five thousand mostly men, however all fit males had to serve at least five years in the 'National Guard' a sort of part time army. Intelligence reports suggested that morale was good and both the Regular Army and National Guard would fight hard against any invader. On the plus side, from Buffy's point of view at least, only the Regular Army had anywhere near up to date equipment, while the equipment of the National Guard was two or three generations behind anything Buffy was using.

Now onto the ice age, Buffy shifted in her rack and considered composing a 'letter' to Dawn which would be much more fun, she had so much to tell her! Buffy had recently discovered that her little sister had signed up for Federal Service and in the MI no less! By the time Buffy got back to anywhere civilised, Dawn should have finished her training...if she hadn't washed-out of course. Laughing Buffy shook her head, Dawn would never wash-out she was too stubborn to fail. Sighing, Buffy put any thoughts about letters to Dawn out of her mind, they'd have to wait, there was an ice age to read about.

“Yippee,” Buffy whispered unenthusiastically. 

It seemed that when Summerworld had originally been surveyed no one had noticed that every five thousand years or so, Summerworld went through a one hundred year cold snap. Temperatures would plummet until most of the northern hemisphere was covered in snow and ice. However, what with all the water being frozen up in ice sheets the coastlines changed and it would be easy enough for any population to migrate to the warmer south. Easy if you weren't a technologically advanced society unwilling to abandon your cities and factories to become subsistence farmers on the southern continents.

From what Naval Intelligence had been able to piece together the civilian government had been unequal to the task of rescuing Summerworld and it actually looked as if this General Sparks guy was saving people. Okay, he was having people who disagreed with him or who were judged to be 'useless mouths' locked up. But, there was no evidence that he was having people killed. From what had been found out about these camps the inmates where decently fed and were only made to do useful work. 

Frowning Buffy switched off her computer and watched the screen slip back into the ceiling of her bed space. In a way she hoped that it didn't come to a fight, this Sparks guy appeared to be doing the best he could under difficult circumstances. But, she'd fight if she was told to, that's what MI did, controlled violence; just enough death and destruction to get a point across, no more no less.

“Hey you guys!” Buffy called to her squad who were sitting around the squad bay gossiping, “I'm taking a nap and I'm putting up my privacy screen, so only disturb me if the hull's been breached and even then it better be a big breach.”

Not waiting for an answer, Buffy flicked the switch that put up her privacy screen that basically cut her off from the rest of the galaxy. Due to her isolation from the rest of the universe, she didn't get to hear several of her squad snigger and such comments as; “...yeah right,” and, “...who does she think she's spoofin',” and, “...where does she get all the batteries from!?”

“Alone at last,” she sighed.

Turning so she could get to her personnel locker, Buffy pressed her thumb against the lock and opened it up. Searching through the litter of old message cards she soon found what she was looking for.

“Hello, big boy!” Buffy giggled as she took hold of the 'toy' and plugged it into the little power point next to her reading light; the 'toy' started to hum softly as it powered up, “Harmony,” Buffy said to herself, “I don't care what people say...you're a genius!”

Harmony's idea about connecting their 'personnel entertainment units' up to transformers and running them off the ship's power had worked after a little soldering. Now they'd never need to buy a battery again. Wriggling out of her fatigues and pushing her panties down so they were around her knees, Buffy rubbed the gently vibrating toy between her legs. Shivering with pleasure she felt the tension start to leave her body.

“It's the loneliness of command,” Buffy told herself, “that and not having a real live guy to make out with...oh yes,” she signed, “but this isn't so bad...”

Writing to Dawn and invading Summerworld could wait for a little while longer. After all what was a few more minutes or hours?

0=0=0=0

**Mayfair shanty-town, RV-3490-3.**

Walking back to the shanty-town after finishing work, Leah Moore smiled for the first time since her daughter had been taken by the soldiers. Having tried to find out where Amber and the other young people had been taken, she'd found out nothing, no one knew anything or if they did they weren’t saying. Leah was smiling because one of the women who she cleaned house for had given her some old dresses and a couple of men’s shirts and pants for her husband. But best of all she’d given Leah half a dozen tins of vegetables; okay the tins were badly dented, but Leah wasn’t planning on keeping them very long. Walking along thinking about what she was going to cook for Henry and herself tonight, she didn’t notice the trucks until they’d already stopped and the troops that were jumping down from them.

0=0=0=0

Watching the company deploy, Captain Purdy smiled at the efficient way the men moved and took up position surrounding the camp. The order had come down from the General himself that the shanty-towns were to be ‘closed’ and their denizens ‘dealt with in an appropriate manner'. As Major Grant, the company commander, had been called away to a conference it fell to Purdy to carry out the mission.

The plan was simplicity itself; first they would surround the camp. Then they would move in driving the inmates before them. Once they’d caught every one in the centre of the camp the men would be separated from the women and everyone would be put aboard trucks. Anyone who resisted or tried to run was to be shot without warning. Once cleared the camp would be burnt to the ground, he’d leave a couple of squads behind to shoot down anyone who might have hidden themselves and were trying to escape the flames. After the army had done its work the local authorities could come in and bulldoze the place flat.

“Sir!”

Turning his head slightly, Purdy saw Company Sergeant-Major Thomas standing a couple of yards away.

“Sergeant-Major?” Purdy turned to look at the man.

“The men want to know what to do about the children, Sir.”

“You know the orders, Sergeant-Major,” Purdy replied levelly.

“But the kids, sir?” Thomas frowned; he spoke quietly so not to give the idea that the Company 2i/c and himself were arguing, “Normally we send ‘em to a social centre or something to be adopted.”

“I know,” Purdy replied a little too sharply, “but…” a thought struck him and he stopped talking while he considered his options. “Yes, Sergeant-Major I see what you mean.”

The CSM looked relieved, Captain Purdy was a decent officer, and he’d know that shooting kids would be bad for the men’s morale.

“Our orders are to deal with these people,” Purdy gestured towards the camp, “in ‘an appropriate manner’.” Purdy paused as he thought how to put this, after all everyone knew what ‘an appropriate manner’ really meant; wilful disobedience of even such a vague order could drop him in hot water and he had no intention living out his, no doubt short life, in a penal battalion.

“I think an ‘appropriate manner’ at least for the younger children,” explained Purdy, “would be for us to hand them over to Child Welfare Services for adoption to good homes, don’t you think CSM?”

“Excellent idea, Sir.” Thomas agreed.

“Was there anything else, Company Sergeant-Major?” Purdy wanted to know.

“No, Sir.”

“Well, get the men started,” after watching the Company Sergeant-Major radio the platoon leaders to start the operation, Purdy smiled as the troops moved towards the camp.

0=0=0=0

Inside the back of the truck, Leah found herself sitting on one of the benches that ran along the side of the truck next to the tailgate. By carefully working her fingers between the two pieces of canvas at the rear of the truck, she could pull them apart just enough to see where they’d been. Having finally noticed that the troops were surrounding the shanty-town, Leah had run through the fetid little alleys to the shack she shared with her husband, only to find him missing, he must still be out working. Running back out into the alley she’d been scooped up by some soldiers who’d roughly herded everyone towards the centre of the camp. Thinking briefly about trying to resist the sound of sporadic gunfire warned her against such a course of action.

Once everyone had been herded into the camp’s centre, the soldiers had separated the men from the women and the smaller children from the older ones. Once they’d all been separated into three groups the small children had been taken away and the adults and older children had been loaded onto trucks. They’d been driven out into the snow covered farm land that surrounded Mayfair along a main road, Leah didn’t know which one, but from the location of the sun she guessed they were heading in the general direction of Sagvegla which was eastward towards the mountains.

“What are they going to do with us?” the question came from the girl sitting next to Leah, she turned to look at the girl’s frightened, tear stained face.

“I don’t know, honey,” Leah replied softly, “Where’s your mom?”

“I’ve only got my dad an’ he’s on one of the other trucks,” replied the girl as she tried to sniff back her tears.

Sighing, Leah looked at the girl; she wasn’t going to lie to her, she wasn’t going to make up some story just to make her feel better for a little while, instead she said;

“Hey!” Leah turned so she was facing the girl, “I’m Leah, what’s your name?”

“Janice,” replied the girl, she was about twelve or thirteen but looked younger because she was so skinny.

“Pleased to meet you Janice,” Leah tried to sound upbeat, but it was an effort, “look, what say that you an' me stick together until we find your dad, eh?”

“Thanks,” Janice smiled and shuffled closer to Leah laying her head against the woman’s shoulder as she did so.

The trucks went on until the sun started to get low in the western sky before they turned off onto a bumpy frozen track. Here the ride got rougher and the women in the back got bounced around unmercifully as the driver didn’t bother to slow down. Hanging on to each other Leah and Janice fought to stay on their part of the bench. Eventually the truck stopped and the engine was switched off, moments later the soldiers came and opened up the back of the truck.

“Everybody out!” cried a soldier as he gestured with his gun, “Rest stop, thirty minutes.”

Blinking against the evening sun after spending so long in the dark of the truck, Leah jumped down onto the freezing snow and then turned to help Janice down. Shading her eyes with her hand, Leah took in her surroundings. There were five trucks and half a dozen of the bigger type of jeep like vehicles the army used. Wandering around in a confused crowd were perhaps two or three hundred women and girls.

A nagging memory started to try and attract Leah’s attention, she’d seen something or read something like this before. They appeared to be in a clearing surrounded by stunted trees and thorn bushes. Why had they stopped out here, she asked herself, there was nothing here. If this was a ‘rest stop’ why wasn’t anybody at least handing out bottles of water or something? Her eyes fell on the ‘jeeps’, there were six of them. Three were open top types and had soldiers standing around them smoking and laughing amongst themselves.

The other three had canvas covers, Leah noticed that the flaps at the back were only loosely tied down and there were no soldiers anywhere near them. Her heart started to beat faster as she realised what was about to happen. The three covered jeeps were equally spaced in such away that their backs were facing the crowd of tired women but not towards any of the other trucks. Looking around she noticed that the soldiers who’d surrounded them in a loose circle were now walking slowly back towards the trucks. No one was chivvying the women to move, no one had handed out bottles of water because they weren’t going to live long enough to need it. Kneeling down in the snow, Leah looked Janice in the eye.

“Janice,” she said firmly, “something really bad is going to happen and I want you to be brave,” the girl opened her mouth to speak, but Leah shushed her into silence. “I want you to hold my hand, I want you to hold it real tight and whatever you do don’t let go,” Leah fought to prevent herself from crying or showing fear. “When I tell you to run, I want you to hold on tight and run as fast as you can, can you do that for me?”

Standing up, Leah felt Janice’s hand in her own, be brave, she told herself there were always survivors. There was always someone who survived against the odds and lived to tell the tale; to see the perpetrators brought to account. This had all happened before so many times and in so many places that she was half surprised that she hadn’t put two and two together earlier; but you always thought it’d never happen to you. It would never happen on your world, people were too civilised to let it all happen again.

The soldiers were now standing by the vehicles fingering their weapons, any moment now, Leah thought, they would fire. Taking a firmer hold of Janice’s hand she started to move towards the edge of the crowd furthest from the soldiers. The soldiers started to bring up their guns as the flaps on the backs of the jeeps were moved aside to reveal machine guns; the type that had to be put on stands so they could shoot.

Turning away, Leah pulled Janice behind her, “RUN!” she cried and started to run across the snow towards the cover of the thorn bushes just as the guns began to fire.

Running as fast as she could, Leah could hear the screams of the women and girls being shot down behind her; she heard Janice sobbing as she ran beside her. The first bushes looked like they were a thousand miles away, but she kept running and dragging the girl along with her. Feeling like someone had hit her with a sledge hammer, Leah felt herself falling; she screamed in pain as she crashed onto the frozen ground. Looking up desperately she saw that the bushes and safety were now only a few feet away; she felt Janice trying to pull her towards cover as she sobbed quietly and bullets whistled above their heads. Realizing that the girl was unharmed, obviously the gunner had been firing too high to hit the child, Leah fought to free her hand from Janice’s.

“RUN!” Leah croaked as she tasted blood in her mouth, she saw the girl’s wide terrified eyes as she kept trying to drag her to safety. “Run,” Leah repeated knowing any moment now the machine gun would sweep through the area again, “live for me,” it was getting hard to speak, “tell people what happened…run!”

Reluctantly, Janice let go of Leah’s hand and ran into the bushes and kept running as fast as she could.

0=0=0=0

Waking up with a start to the sound of a gun shot, Leah realised she’d been dreaming; she’d been dreaming about when Henry and herself had brought Amber back from the hospital when she was a baby, she wished she’d been a better mother. Henry was probably dead, but Amber might still be alive somewhere, there was always a chance, a hope. Moving her head a little, she found she was lying on her stomach; she searched the snow between herself and the bushes, there was no sign of Janice. Maybe she’d got away too, for a moment Leah fantasized about Amber and Janice meeting and coming back for her and… But that would never happen, she was dying. Leah tried to remember the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead.

“May His great name be exalted and sanctified…” she stopped after only a few words her brain wouldn’t work and her tongue was unused to saying the words. 

Hearing a footfall next to her head, Leah felt someone turn her over with their boot and found herself staring up at a soldier; she saw the sinister shape of his helmet silhouetted against the evening sky; she saw the cavernous maw of the pistol as he pointed it at her head, so sharp, so clear.

“Someone always survives,” Leah whispered.

“But not you,” sneered the soldier.

The last thing Leah saw was the man’s finger as it tightened on the trigger.

0=0=0=0


	27. Chapter 27

27.

**RV-3490-3.**

The ATV slowed but didn’t stop as it bounced along the rough track in the dark. As it slowed four dark shapes tumbled from the back of the vehicle, for a moment they were darkly visible before disappearing between the thorn bushes that dotted the snow on the northern edge of the habitable zone.

Rolling into the ditch at the side of the track, Private Terry Price, 'A' Company, 8th National Guard Light Infantry Battalion, lay still and listened to his wildly beating heart. Listening hard he tried to ignore the noise his heart was making; surely they could hear it in Tathra City, the closest still habitable town, he tried to hear if he and his buddy’s sudden arrival had been noticed. Other than the faint noises made by his team-mates, Terry could hear nothing but the pounding of his heart.

“Sound off,” came a whispered order from the other side of the track, the voice came from Sergeant Williams, his platoon sergeant.

“Blake, okay,” a voice from Terry’s side of the track called softly.

“Milton, okay,” came a voice from further down the track.

“Price, okay,” Terry said in little more than a whisper before adding to himself, “If you don’t count the mind numbing terror.”

“Prepare to move,” Williams called quietly.

Hearing the other guys in his team start to shift their positions, Terry pushed himself to his knees and checked his gear. Making sure that all his pouches were closed and he hadn’t accidentally buried the muzzle of his rifle in the snow, he prepared himself to move.

“Move,” came the whispered order.

As one the four dark shapes rose from the snow like wraiths; looking around Terry could see his buddies and the surrounding snow surprisingly clearly in the starlight. He glanced upwards to see the sky full of thousands of hard, bright, white points of light, and he wondered just how many of them were Federation Starships. The stars stretched across the sky in a wide luminous band, this (he remembered from school lessons) was because he was looking at the galaxy edge on and Summerworld was close to the galactic rim.

“Price!” A loud, slightly annoyed whisper came from the direction of Sergeant Williams.

Startled out of his star gazing, Terry looked around to see his buddies had shaken themselves out into a loose square formation and he was the only man out of position. Cursing himself for being distracted, he fell back and dropped into position opposite Milton. Each man had his own designated arc to observe; up ahead the Sergeant and Blake watched to the left and right of the track. Milton’s job was to watch the centre of the team and warn if anyone threw a grenade into the middle of the formation, he was also detailed with watching Terry’s back. The job Terry had been entrusted with was that of ‘tail-end Charlie’. Every dozen or so paces, Terry had to turn around and walk backwards for a few yards to check there was no one coming up behind them.

Falling into position, Terry concentrated on his job trying to spot if anyone was trying to sneak up behind him or his buddies. While he was doing this he was also trying not to trip over, or catch either himself or his equipment on any of the widely spaced bushes. He also had this fear that when he turned around from walking backwards he’d find his team-mates gone and he’d be alone in the snow. Taking off his gloves for just a moment, he wiped his sweaty palms on the leg of his uniform trousers, slipping his gloves back on he concentrated hard on not getting lost and doing his job properly.

He’d joined the National Guard during his last year at High School mainly because most of the other guys in the football team were doing it. He’d not wanted to join the regular armed forces because he was expected to go into the construction business when he left school, so the National Guard seemed like a good option. Once he’d finished his two months of basic training, Terry found he rather enjoyed the camaraderie of the Guard. Normally training was one three day weekend a month, he got paid, not a lot but it was more than most of his classmates got from part-time civilian jobs. He also got to wear his uniform which got him noticed by girls (and just as importantly by their parents).

For his first year in the Guard he had to be in an infantry battalion, ‘A’ Company, 8th Battalion, 7th National Guard Infantry Division, to be precise. Once he’d done a year in the infantry he’d be able to transfer to a Guard Engineer Company. The Guard liked it if a guardsman’s civilian job matched his military one. However, until that day arrived, Terry was in the infantry and being in the infantry meant searching the snow for Federation infiltrators. Tonight the men from his platoon were patrolling because some hunters had reported seeing suspicious lights falling to the ground near their camp. But that had been a couple of nights ago and Terry suspected that even if it had been 'The Feds' they were long gone by now.

However, the battalion intelligence officer had received information that a large group of Feds were going to attempt to land in the same area, probably from a shuttle. How the Intel Officer had come by this information, Terry didn't know. What he did know was that due to the wild imaginings of a bunch of drunken hunters and the over active imagination of the Battalion Intelligence officer, he was going to spend a cold and uncomfortable night out on the snow fields. The company commander had quickly put an operation together involving two platoons in blocking positions covering the most likely infiltration routes south, while Terry’s platoon had been split into small teams to cover the gaps. Company HQ and the support platoon would act as a mobile reserve.

Up ahead of him, Terry saw Sergeant Williams (a barber in civilian life) raise his hand signalling everyone to stop. Going down on one knee, Terry turned to face outwards, watching the night for danger. He stared out into the starlit night and wondered nervously why they’d stopped. He turned his head at the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow behind him and found Sergeant Williams kneeling beside him. The sergeant pushed his helmet up off his forehead a little, Terry followed suit.

“Price,” hissed Williams.

“Sarge?” Terry started to feel extra nervous, he could feel something was about to happen.

“Look,” Williams glanced at the surrounding desert, “I just got word that there’s a large group of Feds heading our way, we’ve got to slow ‘em down, okay?”

“O-okay, Sarge,” Terry’s heart started to beat so loudly again he was scared that the sergeant might hear it.

“I know this is your first time out an’all,” Williams said in a fatherly way, “just remember your drills and do what you’re told and you’ll be back to that girl of yours in time for Landing Day with a load of wild tails to tell her, you with me?”

“Got it, Sarge,” Terry felt his entire body begin to shake but not from the cold.

“Good man,” Williams smiled at him reassuringly and patted him on the shoulder before standing up and heading back to his position at the front of the team. “Okay guys,” he called softly, “fire 'em up!”

His fingers numb with fear, Terry checked that his safety catch was on before activating his M3A6 plasma rifle. 

“Okay, guys,” Williams whispered loudly, “close up a little, keep your eyes open and follow me.”

Readjusting his helmet, Terry followed Williams through the scattered bushes as he and his buddies moved slightly closer together to prevent anyone getting lost as they moved quickly through the night. As soon as they made contact, if they made contact, they’d spread out again.

They’d been alternating between trotting and walking fast for about fifteen minutes (although to Terry it had felt like an eternity) when Williams raised his hand and the team went to ground their white snow suits making them almost invisible. Raising his head a little, Terry saw something move about thirty paces to his front. Over to his right he could hear Williams speaking urgently into the radio carried by Blake.

“…contact now! Grid 451852, forty plus Feds heading south, will engage, out!”

Once again all Terry wondered where people got all these wild numbers from. He'd seen maybe one person moving and he wasn't overly convinced it had actually been a real live person. He was inclined to believe he'd been seeing things!

“Listen up,” called Williams softly, “form a skirmish line,” looking up Terry saw Williams wave his arm to where he wanted them to form the line, “On my word we’ll move forward until we make contact…after that,” Terry could almost hear the man shrug, “we’ll see what happens.” There was a short pause, “Now move!”

Scrambling to his feet, Terry ran quickly to his left and took up position between Blake and Milton. His heart beating even louder than ever, Terry realised that in a few more minutes he could be in combat. He wondered how he'd react, would he freeze up? Or maybe he'd just turn tail and run? No, he wouldn't do that, the desire not to let his buddies down was too strong for that to happen...he hoped. But this time if or when the shooting started he wouldn't be shooting at wooden targets they’d be real people who’d scream and bleed when you shot them. He now wondered if he’d be able to pull the trigger when the time came.

A soft whistle from his right made Terry look that way, he saw Sergeant Williams signal them to stand up and start to move forward. At a fast walk or slow trot, he started towards the where he believed the Feds were getting organised. Feeling his heart beat even louder and faster, he forced himself to keep moving forward when all the time he just wanted to dig a hole and hide. On they moved quickly eating up the distance between themselves and the Feds until… 

Coming around a bush, Terry found himself almost face to face with a Fed. There only a few yards away was the armoured bulk of one of the Federation's infamous Cap-troopers. To Terry the Mobile Infantryman looked about twelve feet tall and maybe six feet wide. The armoured warrior appeared to bristle with all sorts of weapons and strange pieces of equipment. All those big, lethal looking weapons made Terry feel very inadequate armed only with his M3 plasma rifle and a few grenades. For several seconds, which felt like hours, Terry watched the armoured bulk of the cap-trooper with fear filled eyes. He felt the cold sweat roll slowly across his face as he stood there like a statue wondering what to do. Suddenly, Terry’s training kicked in, he raised his rifle centred it on the trooper's chest and pulled the trigger; nothing happen.

“Damn-it!” Terry cursed quietly as he fumbled to click his safety catch to ‘Fire’.

Pulling his trigger, Terry felt the world explode around him. Deafened and half blinded, Terry stood for a moment wondering where the trooper had gone; had he run off or something? Was he hiding behind a bush somewhere drawing a bead on his chest? ‘Move!’ Terry told himself, he rushed forward and knelt down next to the bush where the trooper had been standing. Looking down he noticed that the snow had been blasted into a shallow hollow. What he'd thought had been an explosion must have been the trooper's jets kicking in and carrying the Fed to safety. That just wasn't fair, Terry told himself, how were you supposed to fight if the enemy kept flying away?

Now he was free of the fear of being swatted out of existence by the awesome might of the Cap-trooper, Terry could hear the flat sounding 'cracks' of plasma rifle fire as his team-mates engaged the Feds. The the Feds, of course, fired back with their much heavier weapons, he saw and felt their rounds snapping over his head. Letting his training take over, Terry jumped to his feet and ran towards a new bush. As he ran he moved his head from side to side searching for targets; if he thought of them as targets he’d be okay he wouldn’t freeze up.

Another ghost-like figure moved over to his left, turning he fired a burst of plasma bolts at it. He threw himself to the ground, rolled to his right and checked his rifle's powerpack, it was still well into the green. Bringing his rifle up to his shoulder again he centred his sights on a muzzle flash; the weapon fired slowly so he guessed it wasn't one of his buddies. Squeezing the trigger, Terry sent two bolts in the direction of the next muzzle flash. Much to his surprise the Fed didn't fire again, at least not from that spot, he was either dead or had moved away, he'd probably never know which. Anyway it didn't matter as Terry had already rolled to his right, jumped to his feet and sprinted for a new position. He knew better than to fire more than a couple of shots from the same position in this kind of fight.

The battle went on for what seemed like hours, but probably wasn’t more than half an hour. There were definitely more than forty Feds trying to move south tonight. However hard they tried, Sergeant Williams and his team couldn’t hope to stop them all. Eventually the Feds recovered from the shock of being ambushed. They counter-attacked with a desperation that bordered on fanaticism. They pushed the patrol back trying to get behind them and destroy them, but Terry and his buddies were always just a little too fast for them. Eventually the mobile reserve arrived and surrounded the Feds after which a short but vicious firefight developed until the Feds broke out and retreated north.

0=0=0=0

Walking between the company’s vehicles in the early morning light, Terry looked for his friends; somehow he’d got separated from them and he’d attached himself to some guys from the anti-armour section who’d joined the fight after the CHQ platoon had joined the battle. As he walked he searched his pockets until he found a pack of cigarettes. Placing one between his lips he dug out his Zippo from his breast pocket and lit up. As he took that first sweet lung full of smoke, he held his hand up in front of his face and noticed it wasn’t shaking anymore. Eventually he found his buddies sitting in the back of an ATV.

“What’s going on guys?” Terry grinned as he saw Blake and Milton sitting next to the tailgate of their ATV, “Why the long faces, where’s Sarge?”

Slowly the smile left Terry’s face as he noticed the boots sticking out from under a poncho on the floor of the ATV.

“Crap, man,” Terry sighed sadly, “Sergeant Williams?”

Milton nodded his head.

“How…?” Terry stopped himself before the question was out of his mouth, of course he knew how, “When?”

“About five minutes after first contact,” Blake explain, “Feds got him in a cross fire and he went down, I couldn’t get to him.”

“Shit,” Terry slumped down on the tailgate and drew on his cigarette, just now he wished he was in the arms of his girl and not sitting next to the body of his dead platoon sergeant.

“Yeah,” breathed Blake, “looks like the company's going to need a new barber,” he nudged Terry with his elbow, “Give me a smoke, will ya?”

Sitting there next to his buddies and his dead platoon sergeant, Terry happened to look upwards at the fading stars again; once more he wondered how many of them were Federation Starships and when the Federation would try and land again.

0=0=0=0


	28. Chapter 28

28.

“How's my best girl?” Buffy asked as she walked into the sick bay.

Sitting on a treatment table, Harmony was dressed only in her panties and socks as a Navy medic treated the angry red burn over her right breast, Buffy winced in sympathetic pain. The medic glanced up from his work and caught sight of Buffy.

“She'll be fine,” he reassured her, “just a superficial burn, no deep tissue damage she'll be fighting fit in a couple of days.”

“Yeah,” Harmony sulked, “fighting for breath and fit to drop you mean.”

“Healthy young woman like you?” the medic said with a grin, he was about thirty years older than either Buffy or Harmony, “Go tell it to the MI...” he chuckled, “...sorry, you _are_ the MI!” He picked up a can of 'Skin Heal', “Brace yourself,” he told Harmony, “this'll be cold and it might sting a little.”

Harmony gasped and her nipples went rock hard as the medic sprayed her chest with the Skin Heal. The spay left a thin shiny film over the burn, the Skin Heal promoted rapid healing for minor burns and abrasions, it was made by the same people that made the nanites for their body stockings.

“No other damage that I can see,” the medic grinned as he gestured to Harmony's erect nipples.

“Get lost perv,” Harmony retorted.

“That'll need five minutes to set properly,” the medic continued without a pause, “lie down and have a rest while it does,” he turned to Buffy, “Make sure she takes it easy for twenty-four hours then send her to see me again, everything should be fine by then, okay?”

“Sure,” Buffy nodded, “and thanks.”

“All part of the happy, smiling, Navy service,” the medic acknowledged, “and its not everyday an old geezer like me gets to see a rack like that!”

“Sicko,” Buffy replied without rancour, she realised that the medic was just trying to make Harmony feel good about how she looked and that she was still desirable.

“Like I say,” the medic collected up his tools and headed off towards the little office at the end of the sick bay, “all part of the service.”

Looking down at Harmony where she lay on the treatment table, Buffy had to agree with the medic, Harmony had great breasts; they were nicely shaped and were neither too large or too small and Buffy found she was having difficulty not staring at them.

“Boy,” she sighed, “I've been in space too long...”

“You know if you relaxed your lame 'no screwing' rule you could be touching those right now,” Harmony giggled making her breasts jiggle about and Buffy's heart rate increase.

“Slut,” Buffy muttered as she tried to suppress a girlish giggle, “and you were such a nice girl at school...” Buffy took a breath and tried to concentrate on the other reason she'd come to see Harmony, although it was very difficult with her friend's breasts just lying there invitingly. “Okay, Harm,” Buffy said after only a short pause, “what happened?”

A couple of days before one of the Navy's orbital recon drones had malfunctioned and crashed on RV-3490-3. Unlike the grape sized army drones the navy drone was much more like a small spaceship, they were big and very capable, which was why the navy wanted it back. Also it was possible that the Summerworlders might recover the drone and use its technology to update their own systems. So, a recovery operation was planed; the Navy would fly a shuttle carrying half a dozen techs down to the crash site, recover or destroy the drone if it was still there and then fly out. It was estimated that the recovery team would be planet side for about an hour. To cover the operation on the ground, Harmony and Sam Kennedy had been sent down with the Navy team to provide security. They weren't expecting any trouble but trouble had a nasty habit of turning up when you least expected it to.

“I got shot that's what happened,” Harmony complained, “its totally not fair, they said there'd be no locals around.”

“Hey,” Buffy laughed, “look on the bright side, you'll get a wound star for this.”

“I will?” Harmony brightened a little at this news; although she'd seen plenty of combat she'd never been seriously injured enough to rate being awarded a wound star; she was beginning to get neurotic about it, “Coooool!”

“Whatever,” Buffy signed, “so you got shot...like how?”

“Everything was going like totally cool,” Harmony settled back on the treatment table while at the same time making sure that her breasts were still in Buffy's face and she couldn't avoid looking at them. “Then we picked up some movement south of us...”

“And...?” Buffy encouraged.

“So, Sam and me went to take a look.”

“And you found?”

“Oh,” Harmony sighed making her chest rise and fall provocatively.

“Stop that!” Buffy snapped.

“Stop what?” Harmony asked innocently.

“You know perfectly well what, now get on with your report Trooper!”

“Ma'am, yes, ma'am!” Harmony giggled, once again making her breasts jiggle and Buffy groan in frustration.

“Harmony...” Buffy growled warningly.

“Okay, okay, no need to totally get your panties in a bunch, so where was I?”

“Movement to the south,” Buffy prompted helpfully.

“Okay, right,” Harmony took a deep breath, while Buffy turned her head away, “Movement to the south. Right, Sam an' me went for a little look-see and we totally found about an infantry platoon's worth of guys making a slow sweep towards us. I popped a drone and picked up two or three more platoons in positions about five hundred yards to their rear.”

“Who were these guys, regular army?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Nah,” Harmony shook her head, “they were their National Guard guys, low tech gear...anyway they tried to ambush us but failed then they tried to draw us onto there main force,” Harmony grinned like a little kid, “an' they failed to do that too.”

“So how did you get shot?” Buffy was confused, if these National Guard guys had screwed up how come Harmony had got shot?

“Stupid really, I was having too much fun and I wasn't on the bounce.”

“Too much fun, huh?”

“Yeah whatever,” Harmony shrugged, “I was keeping their heads down with the LAG when one of their guys managed to get in close and put a couple of plasma bolts into my chest,” she gestured to the shiny skin on her chest. “It didn't penetrate, but it was hellishly hot. My nanites rushed cold water to the burn and my suit injected me with pain-meds...” 

“Then what happened?”

“I bounced outta there!” Harmony cried, “Ma Kendal didn't raise no daughters to totally get like her boobs shot off by some local-yokel with an old plasma rifle, much!”

“Obviously not,” Buffy replied quietly as she channelled the ghost of Giles, “then what?”

“Oh we bounced around a bit,” Harmony sighed tiredly, “at one point we even let them surround us for a while, then the Navy said they were done, so Sam an' me bounced back to the shuttle and boosted outta there with the Navy and their toys.”

“Enemy casualties?”

“We musta hit a few of them by accident but as per the rules of engagement we were totally trying not to kill anyone.”

“So no piles of bodies?”

“No piles,” Harmony confirmed.

“Enemy weapons?”

“Best I saw was the guy who shot me,” Harmony explained, “he had what looked like an old M3 just like we used in training...” Harmony paused in thought for a moment before adding, “...they might have had like a rail gun or something, anyway there was like some hyper velocity fire but no one was hit.”

“Cool,” Buffy nodded, as she picked up a robe and handed it to Harmony, “here put this on I'm taking you home and I don't want the Navy girls to see you and feel inadequate. I also want my ASL up and running on all thrusters.”

“Why?” Harmony slipped on the robe as she got up.

“Looks like we'll be going in to take out this Sparks guy in a few days,” Buffy explained as she helped Harmony into her robe, “Looks like he's been having people shot.”

“He is?” Harmony sounded a little disappointed; up until this news it looked like Sparks had been doing a pretty good, if heavy handed, job and had refrained from having anyone killed.

“Yeah,” Buffy helped Harmony towards the door, not that Harmony needed any help, Buffy just liked the close bodily contact, “we got some satellite images of his security police massacring a load of people out in the wilderness.”

“Darn,” Harmony sighed.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head in agreement, “look when we get back to the bay you write up a report and send it to Sandy and don't miss out anything about how these guys work and their weapons and equipment, okay?”

“Okay,” Harmony agreed, “and then will you join be in my bunk?”

“HARMONY!”

“Sorry,” Harmony shrugged.

“You know,” Buffy whispered, “I'm going to rape the first guy I see next time we're on R&R.”

“No need for that,” Harmony said innocently, “I'm always here...”

“Oooooh,” Buffy moaned.

0=0=0=0

**RV-3490-3.**

The noise of the bugler sounding reveille blared from the tannoy system jerking Amber out of a deep sleep. Having been at Camp Twenty-Nine for just over a month now she’d got to the point where, if she ever met the trumpeter who’d made that recording, she’d merrily strangle the man! Sitting up and putting her feet on the floor, she rubbed her face and tried to get the sleep out of her eyes. If you didn’t at least look semi awake when the guards came in you’d get a nasty jolt form the snazzy, little, shock-sticks that all the camp guards carried.

About two days after arriving at Camp Twenty-Nine the male soldiers who’d been guarding them were replaced by young women dressed in dark grey military fatigues. All the guards carried a pistol in a black holster on a black belt around their waists and an electric shock stick. They all wore their hair in severe buns on the back of their heads under black berets and had those spooky mirror sunglasses so you couldn’t make eye contact. As they all looked the same it was difficult to tell one from another which didn’t really matter, they were all evil bitches.

Sure enough, dead on time, one of the guards burst into the hut, she stalked between the two rows of bunks holding her shock-stick in one hand and tapping it in the palm of the other. The guards were all sadistic bitches, along with all their other jolly little traits they seemed to delight in finding any excuse to give a girl an electric shock, usually on her breasts or between her legs. 

Standing up, Amber rubbed her left breast at the memory of just how painful an electric shock to the nipple could be. Taking the towel that hung from the end of her bunk and her toothbrush, she walked quickly to the washroom at the far end of the barrack hut. After using the toilet, Amber brushed her teeth while she waited for space in the shower to come free. Whoever was running this camp and for whatever purpose, one thing was sure, they wanted everyone clean, well fed and healthy. Eventually taking her turn in the shower, Amber stood under the warm water letting it wash away the last vestiges of sleep. Soaping herself down with the soap from the dispenser on the wall, she noticed a guard walk slowly around the washroom watching the naked girls.

“Five minutes, ladies!” called the guard called with false jollity as she glanced at her watch.

Quickly rinsing herself off, Amber jumped out of the shower, grabbed her towel and tried to dry herself off as she hurried back to her bunk. No one bothered much about nudity in the hut now and anyway no one had given them any nightdresses and you weren’t allowed to wear your prison uniform in bed. Still damp she slipped on her underwear and coveralls before placing her hat on her head and slipping her feet into her boots. Not long after arriving at the camp everyone had been issued with warm clothes and more blankets for there beds. Both were welcome as the weather seemed to be getting colder every day and the huts heating system only worked for about half-an-hour in the morning just before everyone got up. Ready to face the world again Amber headed outside with a good minute to spare.

Forming up in three ranks with the other girls, Amber waited to be counted. They liked counting you here. You were counted before they marched you to the cookhouse (the guards liked marching too) and they counted you before they marched you back to the barracks. The girls were counted before and after every meal and at random intervals during the day. Suspecting that the guards were so stupid they’d forget how to count if they didn’t count everybody so often, Amber found herself being counted twice…and all before breakfast.

After a lot of counting and not a little shouting and at least one girl getting shocked on the boob, they were all marched to the cookhouse. Filing silently into the building (another thing the guards hated was noise, any noise; no talking was a mania here), Amber collected her metal bowl and wooden spoon. Moving slowly along the counter she held out her bowl to have an older woman ladle a dollop of the grey stuff that passed for food at the camp into it.

Going to the table were she normally sat, Amber slid along the bench and started to eat. Apart from being slightly sweet the food was more or less tasteless. They ate the same thing morning, noon and night and if you didn’t eat it all up like a good prisoner; one of the guards would shove her stick between your legs and switch it on and hold it there. Amber was a good prisoner and scraped her bowl clean every meal, she was even starting to put on weight; one day she might even get fat!

In the weeks she’d been here nothing really bad had happened to her, no one had tried to rape her or perform weird science experiments on her. However, every few days, just before supper the camp authorities made all the prisoners 'donate' a pint of blood to the local hospital. This was weird, Amber told herself because there had to me nearly a thousand prisoners in the camp. What could a hospital do with all that blood every day? 

But, on the plus side, she had now been given some pretty neat stuff; everyone now had a warm hat with flaps to stop their ears from freezing off and a warm coat to keep the freezing wind from blasting straight through her body. Everyone had their own toothbrush, towels and uniforms were exchanged for clean ones every other day and, oh yes, Amber now had her very own number tattooed on the back of her neck.

Placing her empty bowl on the table in front of her, Amber sat to attention as the guard walked by behind her checking that everyone had finished her breakfast. Only one girl got shocked and Amber forced herself to stay staring blankly ahead as she heard whoever it was scream and beat her hands and legs on the floor as the guard held her stick to her crotch. Turning and looking to see what was happening had got her boob shocked a couple of days ago so she wasn’t going to look again.

Lining up outside they were counted (only once this time) and marched back to the hut. Here they were dismissed to clean up the barracks. Today, Amber’s job was to help clean the washroom. The barracks had been built to hold fifty women, at the moment there were just over twenty, all in their late teens or early twenties. There had been more when they’d arrived, scared, hungry and tired, on that first day. 

After several medical examinations some of the younger women had just vanished while the older women were moved out of the hut. Some Amber saw again working in the cookhouse or laundry, so her fears about this being some sort of death camp (where they made you eat until you exploded?) receded a little. She still didn’t really know why she was here and the nagging feeling that they were going to be trained as sex slaves persisted at the back of her mind.

Their cleaning duties finished the girls stood at attention next to their bunks while the guards checked the hut for cleanliness. It didn’t matter how hard you scrubbed or swept the guards always found some dirt somewhere, Amber was convinced they brought it in with them so they’d have an excuse to punish someone. A guard held her finger under Amber’s nose.

“Dust,” she said simply just before she shocked Amber’s breast.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Amber gasped out, “Yes Ma’am, sorry, Ma’am.”

The guard had already moved on to the next girl as Amber struggled to keep herself standing at attention. Eventually the hut inspection was over and they lined up outside (where they were counted once more), next they were marched over to the workshop where they sat all day in a cold unheated hut making uniforms for the army. Just as she was about to sit down behind her sewing machine, Amber was tapped on the shoulder by one of the guards.

“Outside,” the woman gestured with her shock stick towards the door.

With her heart pounding in her chest, Amber walked quickly out of the hut and lined up with five other girls who where standing on the path outside. She didn’t like this, this was new and her rapidly developing prisoner’s sixth sense was telling her that ‘different’ meant bad. What was worse, the guards didn’t even bother to count them before they marched them away!

0=0=0=0


	29. Chapter 29

29.

**RV-3490-3.**

The day Amber had been taken from her sewing machine and marched away she thought that she was going to be shot, or tortured, or raped, or maybe used for medical experiments, but she wasn't. Instead herself and the five other girls were marched to a compound at the edge of the camp where a small army truck stood waiting for them. The camp guards handed Amber and her sister prisoners over to the two soldiers; the guards even made the soldiers sign for Amber and her friends. The form probably said something like; Received in good condition six female prisoners.

After the guards left, the soldiers locked Amber and the others into the back of the little truck. The cargo compartment was made out of metal and at some point had been roughly insulated against the cold. There were bench seats on either side of the compartment and plenty of room to stretch out, the soldiers even gave their passengers extra blankets, food parcels and Thermos' of hot tea. It was almost like going on a day trip somewhere...if they hadn't been locked in. When the girls pleaded with the soldiers to tell them where they were being taken, the soldiers just said 'Nowhere bad' and left it at that.

All through the long journey the girls speculated about what was going to happen to them. Eventually they sort of decided that they were all being taken to a government run brothel, they were all pretty, teenage girls and obviously the time spent in the prison camp was to fatten them up a little and make sure they were fit and healthy before they started their real work. After this topic of conversation was finished with, the girls started to swap their life stories and why and how they'd ended up in the camp.

It was the usual round of being arrested for demonstrating against the military government, belonging to a religious group that the General didn't like, or just not fitting in with the new society. One thing that Amber did notice was the General and his cronies didn't appear to be racist, black, brown or white you got thrown in prison because you disobeyed in some way not because of the colour of your skin.

It was a long journey and they had to stop twice for 'comfort breaks', once the girls had to squat in a cold, snow filled roadside ditch and once they stopped at a roadside rest centre. Here Amber caught sight of the front page of the official government news sheet as she shuffled towards the ladies room; the soldiers had made them put on leg irons so they couldn't run away. The news sheet warned people about attacks by the Terran Federation who right at that moment were waiting to... Unfortunately Amber didn't have time to read what the Federation were doing, or indeed not doing, she had to move on or it would have been obvious she was trying to read the news-sheet. 

Once back at the truck the leg irons were removed before they continued their journey. When they finally arrived and were allowed to climb out of the truck it was already evening. Snow fell from a dark sky and the wind whipped around them making them shiver despite their warm work clothes. The soldiers led them over to a small brightly lit guard house were the girls were handed over in exchanged for another signature on a form. Finding themselves in the guardroom the girls started to loosen their clothing as it felt quite hot in the building, although Amber guessed this was probably due to the relative not actual difference between the temperature inside and out.

Noticing a clock on the wall over a picture of the General, Amber saw that it was only a little past sixteen o'clock, it wasn't even evening yet. After a short wait, during which the girls had to endure the lustful gazes of the guards, a woman in a smart army uniform showed up with an armed male soldier. The woman, a senior soldier by the looks of her but not an officer, led them away to another part of the building. As they walked through the complex, Amber saw that it was clean and well furnished with practical looking office furniture. There were a lot of soldiers about, both male and female and almost as many civilian workers. No one paid them very much heed as they walked along the corridors, Amber wondered if a lot of young female prisoners came through here regularly.

Eventually after passing through a couple of locked metal doors and into a more austere looking area, the girls were led into a washroom where they were told to strip and shower. Amber noticed that the male soldier had been replaced with an armed female soldier. After their shower they were allowed to dry off before being taken into another room where they were given clothes to wear. They were each given a set of underwear, a white short sleeved blouse, a short blue skirt, white knee socks and sensible black shoes. They also received a nightgown, hairbrush, toothbrush, soap, shampoo and a small selection of cosmetics. Ambers fears of being forced to work in a brothel increased, what other reason could be for the guards to give them all this good stuff and for them to be taken to a building with such an efficient heating system?

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones.**

“Okay everybody listen up, 'O' group!” Buffy called as she and Harmony climbed through the hatch into the squad bay.

The rest of Fifth Squad, the ones that hadn't been at the platoon leader's briefing and had been stretched out on their racks shooting the breeze, slowly got up and walked over to the common area where they sat down and waited for their squad leader to tell them what was going on.

“Right guys,” Buffy continued in a business like tone, “this'll all be downloaded into your brains while you sleep. But, as some of you haven't got brains to download anything into I'll go over it while you're, for want of a better word, awake.”

The squad laughed politely at Buffy's traditional joke before settling down to hear what life had in store for them.

“In precisely,” Buffy consulted her wrist computer, “twenty three hours and seventeen minutes, we'll be making a combat drop in capsules on Prospect the Summerworld capital.” Buffy paused to let that bit of information sink in. “The platoon's objective is to take and hold the city until the Navy can send down Military Police and teams from the Social and Political Section. We've also been tasked with killing or arresting certain members of the Summerworld government.” Again Buffy paused, “Between you and me the emphasis is on 'killing' it'll make the S and P guy's jobs a lot easier if the General and his government are swept away before anyone knows what's happening...so here's what we've got...”

Standing in front of her squad Buffy explained how, right as she was speaking, fighters from the Jones' accompanying escort carrier were sweeping through the system attacking and destroying Summerworld's system defences. They would also destroy or otherwise neutralise Summerworld's few warships and any merchantmen they might find in orbit. After these attacks were completed; it was expected to take about five hours to make the system 'safe'. The Jones and her consorts would move into orbit around Summerworld. Next the Jones and the three frigates with her would target specific objectives with their mass drivers and put the planet surface under bombardment. They'd take out barracks and other military targets, communication systems plus power distribution nodes. At the same time, fighters would make tactical strikes against pin point targets on the surface or in orbit.

“...by the time we get to land the Summerworld chain of command will have been hopelessly shattered. If any of you had bothered to read Strategy and Tactics 101, you'd know that a disorganised foe is easier to beat.” Buffy paused for a moment before continuing, “But don't get cocky...”

“The chance would be a fine thing...” Harmony muttered just loud enough for the girl's to hear and giggle over.

“...as I was saying,” Buffy gave Harmony a hard look which Harmony replied to with one of her most innocent, 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth' looks, “don't get complacent, all the evidence shows that the Summerworlders will fight and fight hard. Their military system encourages officers to use their initiative so expect to receive organised local counter attacks. Also remember they're armed with weapons that can wound or kill you, just ask Harm if you can see her chest!”

“Oh yes please!” cried a couple of Fifth Squad.

“Oh pleeeez!” Buffy rolled her eyes, “Alright settle down, now for our part in this little spectacular...” as one, Fifth Squad, leant forward in their seats eager to hear what Buffy had to say, “...we have hit the jackpot,” Buffy informed her troops, “it will be our job to actually jump into the General's palace, kill or capture him and hold the place until we're relieved.”

Stopping talking for a moment, Buffy watched her guy's reaction, they looked suitably impressed with the importance of their mission and eager to bring it to a successful conclusion. On the other hand, Buffy had a pretty good idea why Sandy O'Connor had chosen his least experienced squad for such a high profile mission. Buffy was wise enough to know that she wasn't one of the most experienced NCOs in the Marauders, there were guys with much more battle experience than she had, just look at Mutt Steiner for instance. Also her squad wasn't exactly battle hardened, yes they'd done some good work but they were far from being veterans, most of them hadn't earnt their PFC stripe yet.

Obviously Sandy had confidence that Buffy and her girls could do the job, he wouldn't have given her the mission if he didn't think Fifth Squad could hack it. However, Buffy was convinced she'd got the mission because she and her squad were girls. Sandy was thinking ahead to that time when the army would form those all female units that they kept going on about. Something like this would look good in her record folder, in fact it would look good in all their record folders. Another sudden thought struck her at that moment; it would look particularly good for women in the MI if one or two of her girls got killed or seriously injured in some particularly 'glorious' fashion. Nothing helped recruiting figures like dead or wounded heroes.

“Okay,” Buffy started to speak again, “that's the basics. We've got twenty-three hours to prep, so check out your suits and weapons. Draw extra ammo, fuel and rations. Jamie you'll be on the Zippo and Fin you'll be LAGing it so make sure you have plenty of spare fuel and mags. Actually we've only got eight hours to get everything done because Platoon Leader O'Connor wants everyone to get two good meals and twelve hours sleep under their belts before we jump...any questions?” as usual their were none, “Okay then lets get to it...on the bounce troopers!”

Going over to stand next to Buffy as the guys went about their pre-combat checks, Harmony waited until everyone was out of earshot.

“You okay, Snake?” Harmony asked quietly.

“Yeah, why'd you ask?” Buffy replied as she tapped herself a reminder on her wrist computer.

“Oh, you like zoned out there for a moment,” Harmony gave her friend a slightly nervous smile, “you looked worried...is there something I need to totally worry about with you?”

“Nah,” Buffy smiled reassuringly, “it'll all go on the bounce and by the numbers, just like normal...”

“Yeah totally,” Harmony gave Buffy a disbelieving look, she knew how missions tended to go just after the faecal matter hit the air con.

“But if it doesn't...” Buffy's voice faded away for a second.

“If it doesn't...?” Harmony prompted gently.

“If it doesn't,” Buffy looked into Harmony's eyes earnestly, “promise to keep you're head down and don't be a hero, huh?”

“Oh I know what this is,” Harmony tried to make light of Buffy's obviously dark thoughts, “you want me to totally keep my head down so you can hog all the medals!”

“Darn!” Buffy plastered a smile on her face, “Seen through me again, Harm!” the smile slipped from Buffy's face, “Seriously Harm, don't get hurt I don't know what I'd do without you if...”

“So you do wanna sneak into my rack...” Harmony giggled.

“That's right,” Buffy nodded, “happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do is in Harmony.” 

“You're like, totally weird, you know that, right?”

“Totally insane,” Buffy agreed.

0=0=0=0

**Prospect, RV-3490-3.**

By the time Amber had been at the General's palace for a couple of days, she had realised that she'd not been brought there to fill any vacant spots at the local brothel. Instead the fifty or so girls she shared a dormitory with were employed around the palace doing menial work. They cooked, cleaned and did the laundry everyday. They were well fed and there room was warm with comfortable beds with sheets as well as blankets. In fact life at the palace could almost have been called pleasant if it wasn't for two 'minor' things.

Every Friday, after work and before they had their evening meal the girls were marched to the medical centre in the palace grounds. Here they were 'forced' – forced in that they weren't given any choice about it, to give a pint of blood, just like she'd had to at the camp. Apart from the 'forced' part Amber wasn't _too_ concerned about the giving blood, she was sort of used to it by now. It did, however make everyone tired and as soon as they'd all had their evening meal most girls just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep..

The other thing that happened every week was much more worrying. Every Saturday night after everyone had fallen asleep the girl who had been at the palace longest was taken from her bed and was never seen again. Amber tried asking her sister inmates about what happened to the girls that vanished, but no one knew or if they did they weren't saying anything. Calculating that just over forty girls would have to vanish before it was her turn to go wherever the other girls had gone, Amber determined to find out what happened to the girls or escape before her time came.

It was on the afternoon of her forth day at the palace and Amber was dusting around the pictures in one of the long corridors in the 'official' part of the palace when the lights flickered and went out.

“What's happening?” Bobbie, the girl who was working with Amber asked.

“The lights went out,” Amber replied.

“Well duh, I can see that but why?” Bobbie stepped closer to Amber and felt for her hand, “I've never liked the dark...”

“Me neither,” Amber admitted, she especially didn't like the dark inside, at least outside there'd be light from the stars and the galactic rim.

“So why are we standing here in the dark?” Bobbie wanted to know.

“Like I said, because the lights went out,” Amber repeated.

“Oh you're no...AAAGH!” Bobbie cried as the two girls clutched hold of each other; they'd heard a distant muffled explosion and the ground had shaken a few moments later.

“I don't like this,” Amber admitted, with all the things that had happened to her over the last few months her nerves were shot to shreds.

“Me neither,” Bobbie held on to Amber as the crouched down on the floor.

Just then there were several much louder and closer explosions and the entire building shook, the vibrations knocked a vase off a table and it broke somewhere in the dark.

“Oh no,” Bobbie wailed, “now we'll be beaten for breaking stuff.”

A loud, mournful, siren started to wail somewhere in the distance as red emergency lights flickered on.

“Something important must be happening,” Amber observed; she could see the broken vase, it was an ugly one that she'd not liked.

“Maybe the Feds are attacking?” Bobbie said as more far away explosions made the air shiver in front of there eyes and another vase crashed to the floor.

“Please oh please let it be so,” Amber begged the universe.

“I just hope they don't mistake us for some of the General's hookers,” Bobbie looked up and down the deserted corridor, “lets find somewhere to hide until it all goes away?”

“Yeah lets,” Amber agreed as the two girls came out of their hiding place and made off down the corridor.

0=0=0=0


	30. Chapter 30

30.

The last layer of Buffy's capsule fell away and she found herself sitting on air at two-thousand feet and it was just before planetary dawn over Prospect. Looking down at the blacked out city she saw what looked like chains of fairy lights reach up to met her. For just a second her mind recognised the lights as 'pretty!'. As the first chain of lights flashed by her head she realised that she was very mistaken.

“Crap!” Buffy gasped as she popped her ribbon chute.

Feeling the tug of sudden deceleration, Buffy noticed the remains of her 'egg' flash by her only to be hit and destroyed by ground fire about fifty feet below her. If she'd not deployed her ribbon chute the pieces of white hot debris that were now heading for the planet surface like very hot rain would have been her. Looking around she saw that the night sky was lit up by strings of deadly lights and the flares of high speed missile motors as they pushed their warheads into the sky.

The Summerworlders were putting up so much anti-air fire that they were bound to hit something eventually. As if to drive the point home a very bright flash over to the east indicated that a trooper had just died when his extra ammo had ignited after being hit by one of those 'pretty' streams of plasma bolts. Realising she was making herself a perfect target hanging about under her ribbon chute, she cut the chute free and fell like a two-thousand pound stone towards the ground. Curling into a ball as per doctrine, Buffy allowed herself to drop to about one-thousand feet before she straightened out into her usual swan dive.

Still dropping far too fast for her jets to save her from making a large and expensive hole in the ground, Buffy took a few seconds to check the information her HUD was trying to feed her. A glance at her readouts told her that all her squad were alive and kicking as they plummeted towards the ground. Checking a wider view of the platoon drop she noticed that there were several gaps in a couple of the other squad's formations. Telling herself to let other squad leaders worry about that, she concentrated once more on her own people. As far as she could see only one trooper was out of position.

“Are you okay, Snake?” Harmony's voice came over Buffy's comms, she must have noticed that Buffy was out of position.

“I'm fine...” Buffy replied, “...look no one pop their main chute until you're about one-hundred feet up, I know that's cutting it fine...” Buffy's eye wandered to where the figures indicating her altitude were reducing rapidly, “...but its better than buying a farm!”

Concentrating on the world outside her suit for a second or two, Buffy found herself frighteningly close to the roof of her objective. The numbers indicating her altitude were spinning down almost too fast to read.

“What the hell,” Buffy muttered to herself; popping her main chute she saw her altitude stabilize at about ninety feet as she drifted towards the roof of the building below her “OH! OH CRAP!”

Buffy's cry echoed around inside her helmet. The Summerworlders anti-air fire hadn't hit her but it sure had made her go off target. The roof loomed up below her as her chute reduced her velocity to a point where she wouldn't have her spine pushed up through the top of her skull when she landed. Now only a few feet above the building, Buffy cut lose her main chute and dropped the remaining couple of feet to the roof. As soon as her armoured boots hit the roof tiles she knew she was in trouble.

“AAAAGH!” Buffy screamed as she and two-thousand pounds of armour, weapons, fuel and ammo crashed through the roof.

Obviously the roof of the General's palace (a sort of Gothic castle-like place) had not been designed so that cap troopers could land on it. Buffy had a vague impression of roof tiles shattering and timbers splintering as she headed down through the loft spaces. The next thing that she hit was the joists that held up the roof and the ceiling of the floor below. Crashing though into the top floor, Buffy was aware of red emergency lights and the terrified faces of the people in the room as she passed by. The floor slowed her a little but not enough for her to apologies to whoever had been in the room to witness her sudden and spectacular arrival.

Finding herself crashing through the ceiling into yet another room, this time tangled up in the carpet that had been on the floor of the room above, Buffy was beginning to wonder if she'd keep going until she hit the basement. Fighting against the carpet, she hit the next floor and stopped, but only for a second or too. The microphones on the outside of her suit registered the floor boards creaking as they slowly gave up the unequal struggle of trying to hold up her not inconsiderable weight. Almost in slow motion the floor gave way under her and she crashed through into the room below.

Although the next floor groaned under her weight it didn't collapse. Lying on her back for a moment Buffy took a few seconds to appreciate the fact that she'd 'A' stopped and 'B' was still alive. Fighting off the Constricter-like embrace of the carpet (there were two actually but Buffy was in no mood to count), she climbed unsteadily to her feet. Grabbing her plasma rife from off her back she let her hands move automatically over the weapon making sure it hadn't been damaged in her fall while she watched the icons on her face plate.

“All Five-One and Five-Two call signs sound off, over,” Buffy called over the official squad net.

Listening as her squad sounded off, indicating they'd landed safely, Buffy tried to call up the plans for the palace so she could work out where she was.

“Snake,” Harmony sounded worried when she called Buffy over the squawk-net, “are you okay, you're not where you're supposed to be, do you need help?”

“I'm fine, Harm,” Buffy replied as the palace plans appeared on her HUD, “looks like I'm on the third floor of the official residence wing.”

“WHERE!?” Harmony squeaked loudly.

“I'm inside the palace,” Buffy explained; the plan had called for the squad to land in the palace grounds surrounding the building before working towards the centre doing a seek and destroy as they moved. “Look we can make this work for us,” a plan formed quickly in Buffy's brain, “you and the guys follow the plan, I'll stay in here and stir things up a little.”

“Okay, that sounds totally cool,” Harmony replied sounding more like her usual self, “I'll make sure that all the guys know you're in there and they're not to like, shoot you or anything, okay?”

“You're an angel Harm,” Buffy replied, “okay lets go, we've got a battle to win!”

“Roger that...” Harmony replied as she started to issue orders to the rest of the squad.

Realising that she'd been inside the palace for several minutes not causing any mayhem (Buffy didn't count the Buffy-powered-armoured shaped hole she'd made in the roof) she looked around for a door, it was only then that she noticed the two terrified girls in short skirts hiding under at table, she pointed her plasma rifle at them, but didn't fire. If the girls had wished her harm they'd have done something while she hadn't been looking.

“WHO ARE YOU?” Buffy demanded before she'd realised she'd got the volume on her external speakers up way too high.

“Please don't kill us,” pleaded the dark haired girl of the pair.

“Get out from under there,” Buffy motioned the girls to move with the muzzle of her rifle, “I repeat, who are you?”

“I'm Bobbie,” the dark haired girl replied before gesturing to the red head beside her, “this is my friend Amber, we're just workers, we were forced to work here and give blood...”

“Give blood?” even over her external speakers Buffy sounded puzzled.

“Yeah,” this time it was the red head, Amber, who spoke, “every week they forced us to give about a pint of blood, we don't know why, please say you're not going to kill us.”

Buffy looked the two teenagers up and down, even looking utterly terrified and a little dirty from all the dust and crap that had accompanied Buffy's entry into the room they looked cute...and a little cold. The short skirts and short sleeved blouses they were wearing hadn't been made with the cold weather in mind. It suddenly occurred to Buffy what they might have been made in mind for though.

“Look,” Buffy tried to soften her voice as much as she could, but it was hard to do over speakers that were only designed to be loud, “I'm not going to kill you or do anything bad to you...”

“Hey are you a girl?” the red head, Amber asked.

“Yeah, Corporal Buffy Summers, Terran Federation Mobile Infantry,” Buffy replied.

“OH COOOOOL!” squealed the two girls in chorus; Buffy winced at the high pitched sound.

“Yeah, whatever,” it took Buffy a moment to be able to hear properly again, “look take these,” Buffy took two mini-tracers from a pouch on her utility belt, “pin them to your clothes they'll tell other MI where you are and not to shoot at you,” she explained. “As soon as we've secured this joint we'll look after you but until then find somewhere warm and safe to hide.”

“Thank-you!” the two girls cried as they rushed at Buffy and hugged her through her armour.

“Yeah right,” Buffy felt just a little embarrassed at the girl's display of gratitude, but then she'd never been used as a blood bank and possibly a whore, she let the girls hang onto her for a few seconds more. “Look guys I've got to go...keep hidden and keep safe, okay?”

“Okay,” the girls let go of Buffy and she noticed the tears in their eyes, “good luck!”

“Thanks,” Buffy called as she made a spectacular and noisy exit through a wall.

“Wow,” Amber breathed after Buffy had gone.

“Who was that armoured stranger?” Bobbie asked rhetorically.

“Corporal Buffy Summers,” Amber replied, “didn't you hear her?”

“Of course I did,” Bobbie snapped back, “I was being dramatic.”

“You were?” Amber shrugged, “I just thought you were hard of hearing...”

“Oh screw you...”

“If you like,” Amber shrugged before adding, “but first we better do as the soldier-girl said and find somewhere safe...”

“And warm,” Bobbie shivered.

“Yeah warm...” Amber pointed to the hole in the wall that Buffy had left, “lets go this way...” Hand-in-hand the two girls crept through the hole in their search for somewhere warm and safe.

0=0=0=0

After smashing through another two or three walls, Buffy found herself in a stairwell, so far the only people she'd met were the two teenage girls she'd sent on their way. So far no one had tried to stop her from rampaging through the building. Calling up the palace floor plans again she could see why. This was definitely the official residential area of the palace and probably only lightly defended. The construction here was too light to slow down anybody with modern weapons, you only had to look at all the Buffy shaped holes in the walls to see the truth in that. Listening to her squad's squawk-net, Buffy heard her girls having all the fun under Harm's firm direction, she could also hear their progress over her external microphones.

“This just isn't fair,” Buffy sulked to herself, here she was with all this expensive and lethal equipment and no one and nothing to use it on, “Darn!”

Hearing the sound of boots on the stairs below her, Buffy peeped over the banister and caught a glimpse of uniformed and armed men running up the stairs towards her position.

“Oh, goodie,” Buffy cried as she climbed over the banister and dropped into the air of the stairwell, “bad guys!”

Dropping between the flights of stairs, Buffy kicked in her jets and slowed so that as she flew by the men who were still running up, she was falling slowly enough to get a good shot at them as she passed by. Taking half a second to check her 'Identification, Friend or Foe', Buffy saw they weren't friends and opened fire with her plasma rifle. Although the enemy soldiers were wearing body armour and helmets it didn't save them from the super heated bolts of plasma that hit them setting their armour on fire and engulfing them in white hot flame.

The enemy soldiers screamed in their fiery deaths as Buffy continued her descend. Coming in to land on a substantial tiled floor at the foot of the stairs, she heard her proximity alert go off just before the first plasma bolts started to hit her armour. Unlike the light armour that the enemy were wearing her power armour suit was designed to resist plasma fire, but the heat still got through and scorched her body even as her nanites froze water around the hits.

Jumping and turning at the same time, Buffy fired at the eight or nine men who'd been lying in ambush waiting for her. Bright balls of white hot plasma scorched the air as everyone fired. Men screamed as they were engulfed in flames as their armour and uniforms caught fire and their bodily fluids flashed into steam. Buffy screamed in pain as the heat inside her suit increased as return fire splashed against her suit. Over riding her jump controls Buffy shot upwards dropping a couple of handfuls of fire pills behind her as she went.

Landing on the stairs a floor up, Buffy grabbed a grenade from her belt and tossed it over the banister. Crouching against the opposite wall she felt and heard the grenade go off. Once the sound of the explosion had passed and the debris had stopped falling she cautiously peered out over what remained of the stairs. When no one tried to shoot her head off she sat down for a moment and winced. There were several spots on her body that felt like they'd been cooked. Feeling the pin prick of her armour injecting her with pain-meds, she sighed in relief.

“Snake,” Harmony's voice penetrated Buffy post-combat reaction, “are you okay, your vitals are all over the place do you need pick up?”

“I'm okay, Harm,” Buffy replied, “I got hit by multiple plasma blasts and I'm a little sore and cooked, I think some of my systems have been knocked out too, how's it going out there?”

“Very heavy resistance,” Harmony replied, “they've got a couple of the girls pinned down but the rest of us are making progress...some of these bad guys are pretty hard to kill.”

“They are?,” Buffy glanced at her HUD to see five of the icons that marked the position of her squad were inside the building while two more were still outside, “Look this is what I'll do. You guys continue with what you're doing while I get behind whatever's pinning down Kate and Fin.”

“Be careful,” Harmony replied, “sounds like they've got a rail gun over there, a hit from one of those will turn you inside out and I'm not ready to take over command of this squad yet!”

“Don't worry,” Buffy laughed, “I'll wouldn't put you though that and Harm, I've just noticed something,” Buffy climbed back to her feet, it was time to move, “when you're fighting you hardly ever say, 'like', 'totally' or 'whatever' at all!”

“Whatever,” Buffy could almost hear Harmony's shrug.

“See you soon,” Buffy called as she checked on the position of Fin and Kate and started to move through the building, sometimes actually going 'through' the building, until she came to the edge of the zone that the locals were defending. 

Getting a fix on the rail gun was relatively simple as it blanked out radio communications at close range whenever it fired. The gun was in a bunker covering what looked like a court yard in the centre of the palace complex. From what she could work out Kate and Fin where pinned down on the ground floor of the building opposite the bunker. Every time they tried to move another burst of fire from the rail gun would destroy another piece of building making Fin and Kate's position worse.

“Now would be a good time to let those slayer abilities out, Fin,” Buffy muttered to herself as she tried to get herself into a position from where she could toss a grenade into the bunker and destroy the rail gun.

However Fin didn't display any slayer abilities and just kept firing her LAG at the bunker. The sand bags and armour plating around the bunker soaked up the energy from the LAG's HEAP rounds and the rail gun kept on firing. Just as Buffy had wormed her way forward to where she thought she could throw a grenade from, she was surprised to see an enemy soldier appear out of nowhere.

“What the hell!?” Buffy muttered as she saw the man start to rush towards her.

In the few seconds that it took the 'man' to close the distance on her, Buffy recognised the bumpy forehead, the yellow eyes and fangs of a vampire, she also noticed the big demolition charge strapped to the vamp's chest.

“OH CRAP!” Buffy yelled as she brought her plasma rifle up on target and fired.

The line of white hot fire intersected with the explosive charge on the vamp's chest, there was a blinding flash and a deafening roar as the fifty pounds of military grade high explosive ignited and blew the court yard to hell and back. The last thing Buffy felt as she flew through the air was a numbing pain all over her body just before she collided with the building behind her and someone turned out the lights.

0=0=0=0


	31. Chapter 31

31.

“I'm getting too old for this crap,” Buffy moaned as she started to dig herself out of the building where she'd landed.

After pushing a large lump of masonry off her chest, Buffy found she could sit up, turning her body a little she discovered that she was in a dark room. Dialling up 'image intensifier' on her HUD she found that she was in what had until recently been some sort of office. It wouldn't be used again for that purpose until someone had repaired the blown in doors and windows, the sagging ceiling and the big crack in the wall over by where the door used to be and finally someone really needed to do something about the large Buffy shaped hole in the wall.

Pushing a metal beam off her legs, Buffy took a moment to check the flashing red tell-tails that called for her attention on her HUD. Her suit had received damage, it was nothing serious, the suits the MI wore were pretty tough, it wouldn't stop her fighting but once she was back on the Jones her suit would need a major overhaul. Climbing unsteadily to her feet, she started to wonder who'd had the idea of using vampires as suicide bombers. It was a neat idea, she told herself as she began to look for her plasma rifle. Vamps were hard to stop, fast and apparently didn't mind blowing themselves to little bits. Another thought struck Buffy just as she found the bent and twisted remains of her rifle. What if all those guys who'd been sent to 'Re-education Camps' had been turned into Vamps? Perhaps that's why the girls she'd found had been forced into giving blood all the time. Not really having the time to think about this sort of stuff just now, she got on with the job in hand.

“Oh shoot!” Buffy moaned; shooting would be the last thing she'd be doing with her rifle.

Tossing her useless weapon to one side her next thought was that she'd better call the vamp in, but she couldn't call it in as a vamp, she'd need to think up a good cover story if she didn't want to leave the MI on a psych discharge. It was really unlikely that the human race would have developed a belief in the supernatural in the last two-hundred years or so, she told herself. However, something she'd read about cheating at the recently held Olympic Games sprang to mind, that would do, she told herself.

“Hello, Nine-Actual this is Five-One, urgent message, over.”

“Nine-Actual, what's the hurry Five-One? Over.”

Buffy was relieved to hear Sandy O'Connor's voice and to find that her comms was still working.

“Five-One, Op-force appear to be using genetically enhanced suicide bombers packed with enough explosive to blow me through a building, over.”

“Nine-Actual, you okay Snake? Over.”

“Five-One, I'm fine although my suit's got a few dings, over.”

“Nine-Actual, roger that. We've been bumping into whole units that seem to be made up of 'enhanced' humans. This General guy must have been developing them for some time before we arrived. Anyway, how's it going over there? Over.”

“Five-One, apart from me nearly being buried under a building you mean? Then not so bad, Five-Two and four Five call signs are inside the objective...you could say I was inside the objective but it was involuntary and there's two call signs still outside, roger so far, over.”

“Nine-Actual, roger so far, over.”

Buffy could hear the amusement in O'Connor's voice; she on the other hand didn't feel at all amused. She was wondering how this General guy had got vamps to work for him and blow themselves up. It had to be what the two girls had told her...they'd been forced to give blood. Obviously that was how the General had fed his vamp troops and the almost continual cloud cover meant they wouldn't go 'poof' in the day light.

“Five-One, as soon as I've done here I'm going inside, we'll try to end this like soon, over.”

“Nine-Actual, got that, we're meeting stiffer than expected resistance with all these enhanced human assists, it would be good to get their leadership out of the game, over.”

“Five-one, wilco, on the bounce now, over.”

“Nine-Actual, roger and good luck Snake, out.”

So, Buffy sighed to herself as she pulled her hand flamer from it's clip on her right thigh (the weapon checked out as functional), things weren't going as smoothly as they normally did, she laughed humourlessly, when did they ever? Starting to move she wondered if the General had any more little surprises waiting for her.

“Come on Corporal Buffy, time to bounce these guys clean outta the galaxy!” Buffy told herself as she came out into the smoky dawn light.

“Snake!” Fin's voice came over the squawk-net and Buffy turned to see the girl in question bounce over to her with Kate following close behind her.

“We thought you'd bought the farm for sure this time,” Kate said as she started to check out the outside of Buffy suit.

“Yeah the reports of my death where like, totally exaggerated, what's going down guys?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Well,” Fin glanced around sweeping the area for hostiles as she did so, “you and that guy sure took out the rail gun...”

“And most of the buildings around the court yard,” Kate added as she came to the end of her inspection, “you look fine, no serious damage...where's your rifle?”

“Back there,” Buffy gestured over her shoulder, “where's Harm and the others?”

“Oh they went inside, but there's something jamming out comms so we don't know exactly where they are,” Fin explained.

Glancing up at her HUD, Buffy noticed that sure enough, Harmony's and the four other girl's icons were missing from her read out.

“Okay, we better go find them,” Buffy said as she noticed that Fin had her plasma rifle still strapped to her back. Although she was the squad's LAG gunner she had still been carrying her personnel weapon...after all a girl couldn't have too many weapons. “Hey Fin,” Buffy put away her flamer, “let me borrow your rifle.”

“Yeah sure, Snake,” Fin turned so Buffy could take the rifle off her back.

“Okay guys,” Buffy hefted the weapon in her hands and felt comforted, “lets go, on the bounce!”

Sure enough as soon as they got into what remained of the building across the court yard from where they'd been standing their comms went dead. Not only couldn't they communicate with the outside world but all the icons denoting the rest of the platoon vanished as well. On the good side Harmony's and the other girl's icons sprang back into being and the squawk-net still seemed to work.

“Harm, its Snake, what's going on?” Buffy called.

“SNAKE!”

Buffy winced at the volume of Harmony's high pitched reply.

“I'm like totally glad to hear your voice again,” Harmony gushed.

“Good to hear you too,” Buffy smiled, “now what's going on?”

“Right,” Buffy could hear Harmony take a deep breath, “I'm with Sam and Daisy up on the forth floor dealing with a lot of very angry people,” Harmony paused for just a second before adding, “Jamie and Mary are sneaking along the floor below trying to come up behind them.”

“How the hell did you get up there?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Sorry, my fault,” Harmony admitted, “we got ambushed on the lower floors and they led us away and up into the upper floors, I'm guessing they're trying to keep us away from something down there.”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded to herself, “can you deal? Do you need help?”

“Oh no!” Harmony sounded as if Buffy had made an improper suggestion, “We'll kick their scrawny asses right off this dirt-ball, no problemo! Hey, have you noticed these guys look totally weird?”

“Yeah, this General guy's been messing around with human enhancements,” Buffy brought the plans for the palace back up on her HUD, “Okay, you keep them busy up there, I'll try to find out what they don't want us to see down here.”

Looking at the plans, Buffy saw a big room in the sub-basement marked as 'Command and Control Centre'. Something told her that that was a big old trap.

“Okay, ladies,” Buffy asked aloud, “if you were the big bad were would you hide?”

“That C3 place looks favourite to me,” Kate suggested.

“Nah,” Fin interrupted, “too obvious,” she spent a moment studying her own plans, “that room marked 'Waste Disposal' looks like its in the wrong place.”

“Just what I was thinking,” Buffy smiled, “you game to see if they mislabelled the rooms?”

“I'm so game you can smell me from five miles away,” Kate observed.

“EWWWWW!” Buffy and Fin chorused in disgust.

“Sorry,” Kate replied sheepishly.

“Whatever,” Buffy found a route to Waste Disposal and turned so she was facing in the right direction, “lets go, on the bounce guys!”

0=0=0=0

Waste Disposal was marked down as a medium sized room, one floor down and at the rear of the main building. No sooner had the three MI girls worked their way to a stairwell leading down that they started to meet resistance. A long, almost continuous stream of plasma bolts rose from below to impact the walls and stairway reducing it to concrete powder and molten metal. Keeping back from the deluge of fire directed at her and her guys, Buffy took a grenade from her utility belt, pulled the pin and dropped it down the stairwell. Just before the grenade went off, Buffy detected the sound of people running for cover. When the grenade did go off, the stairwell was completely filled with dust and bits of building as they bounced off walls and armour.

“FOLLOW ME!” Buffy yelled as she jumped into thin air and rode her jets to the floor below. Coming to a rather bouncy halt when she hit the smashed up floor, she sprayed the area with rapid fire.

'Men' screamed as her plasma set fire to the uniforms and armour as they turned to dust; others just died spectacularly as the super heated plasma flashed their body fluids to vapour and they exploded in a pink haze of blood and body parts. Taking out the last couple of defenders by ramming their heads into the wall with her left hand. Buffy reflected that grenades didn't always cause that much damage, but they were always good for distracting people. Fin and Kate appeared a couple of seconds after the last Summerworlder had died. Glancing at the map that hung before her eyes like some mystical vision, Buffy picked a direction.

“This way!” she ordered as she set off down a corridor; turning to look at each other, Fin and Kate gave each other a power armour shrug and headed off after their squad leader.

Coming to a cross corridor, Buffy kept going only to be hit by a whirlwind of fire coming from three directions. Luckily most of it was slugs which bounced harmlessly off her armour like hail off a tin roof. Calling herself all kinds of an idiot for not being more careful, Buffy backed up as she fired down corridor to her front. About a two seconds later Fin and Kate arrived. Pushing Buffy out of the way, Fin fired a five round burst from her LAG down the passageway.

The 25mm HEAP rounds exploded chopping the Summerworld soldiers to dog meat and clearing the way for the MI to advance. Ejecting her empty magazine, Fin slapped a full one into place.

“Great work,” Buffy said as she calmed herself down; she'd let herself get carried away, that was no example to set impressionable young troopers she told herself. “Okay, they really don't want us to get to waste disposal.”

“Maybe they've got some really embarrassing rubbish down there,” Kate observed.

“Like old wank mags,” Fin sniggered.

“Will you two stop acting like a couple of giggly schoolgirls?” Buffy ordered, “Now lets see...”

Taking a fibre optic camera from a mounting on her right wrist Buffy fed it around the corner of the junction, just like she should have done in the first place instead of charging off like a raw recruit. Looking both ways Buffy saw that the enemy had abandoned their positions.

“No one there,” Buffy retrieved the thin fibre storing it back into the housing on her wrist, “they'll probably try to hit us later on, now which way?”

“We can go down this corridor,” Kate pointed to the passageway ahead of them, “turn left at the next junction then its a straight run to waste disposal.”

“If those plans can be relied upon,” Buffy explained, “but as we've got no other information, we better see where this leads.”

Cautiously crossing the junction, Buffy led the way to the next junction. They were only a couple of yards away from their turn when Kate cried out from the rear.

“CONTACT!”

Turning Buffy looked around Fin who was prevented from turning so quickly because of the length of her LAG's barrel. Running towards them, Buffy recognised the figure of a vamp with a demolition charge strapped to his chest.

“Carp!” Buffy cursed before shouting, “DON'T FIRE!”

Letting her plasma rifle fall to her side, Kate ran at the vamp as she kicked in her jets. Hitting the vamp with enough force to kill a normal man, Kate forced the vamp and his bomb back up the corridor. The next thing Buffy knew was she was pushing masonry off herself for the second time that day. The corridor was a ruin of pulverised concrete, metal girders and concrete slabs. Taking a step forward she heaved a girder off Fin and pulled her to her feet.

“You okay?” Buffy demanded as she did a quick external examination of Fin's suit; it looked dented and scratched but otherwise appeared to be in working order.

“Yeah I'm fine, where's Kate?”

Buffy checked her HUD, Kate's icon had vanished.

“Under there,” Buffy gestured to the wreckage that blocked the corridor, “she's gone...”

“No she can't be,” Fin cried, “her suit must be malfunctioning or something, we've gotta find her!”

“NO!” Buffy pulled Fin back as the girl started to search for her buddy, “She's gone, we'll make pick-up on her later, now we've still got a job to do...you with me?”

“I'm with you,” Fin replied quietly as she searched her own HUD for any trace of her friend, there was none.

“SNAKE! Snake...Buffy!?” Harmony's voice echoed in Buffy's ears, “What happened? A big section of the floor just collapsed and we all heard a god almighty bang!”

“Suicide bomber,” Buffy replied quietly, “he got Kate.”

“Kate...?” Harmony went quiet for a moment, everyone had liked Kate, “Do you need help down there?”

“No we'll manage,” Buffy replied, “How are things up there?”

“We've got them on the run,” Harmony reported soberly before adding, “totally.”

“Good,” Buffy felt the nanites crawl across her face as they started to suck up her tears; the nanites liked tears, “Look start to clear the building from the top down, burn anyone who tries to fight back but be careful there's some innocent civilians around.”

“Innocent civilians?” Harmony muttered angrily, “No such thing!”

“No, I'm serious Harm,” Buffy's voice became sharp as she spoke, “I mean it, there's some girls who are victims too, I don't want them hit in the cross fire so check your targets before you shoot. The bad guys can't really hurt us so we can afford to take a look first, before we burn anyone.”

Buffy was sure she knew where all the blood that had been taken from those girls must have gone. A pint of blood every few days was enough to keep a vamp happy, So how many girls had there been and how many vamps?

“Okay, we'll be careful,” Harmony's voice intruded into Buffy thoughts, “we won't shoot everyone out of hand.”

“That's cool,” Buffy replied; Harmony might sound reluctant but she'd follow orders, “Now I think I've got a lead on their 3C or the big bad's lair, Fin and I are going to check it out.”

“Okay,” Harmony called back, “you look out and be, careful, okay?”

“Right back at you Harm,” Buffy turned to see Fin staring at the blocked corridor behind them, “Hey, Fin time to go...”

“But...” Fin gestured helplessly at the rubble.

“We'll come back for her, now say goodbye, we need to go,” Buffy felt like a heartless bitch but there was a battle to fight and they could all grieve for PFC Kate O'Sullivan, MI trooper and citizen later.

0=0=0=0


	32. Chapter 32

32.

Moving as quickly as they dared, Buffy and Fin trotted down the ruined corridor until they came to the corner they'd located on the building plans. Looking cautiously around the corner, Buffy nearly got her head blown off by one of the two sentry guns positioned at the far end of a large chamber next to a big armoured door.

“CRAP!” Buffy yelled as she quickly jerked her head back into cover.

“What did you see?” Fin asked as dust and smoke swirled about the stretch of corridor they were in.

“Not sure,” Buffy used her fibre optic camera again, luckily it was too small for the sentry gun's targeting systems to identify it as a threat, “I've got two sentry guns, 30 mill at least...”

“Wow,” Fin breathed, “someone's serious, those things could severely spoil your day even in armour.”

“You've not heard the best yet,” Buffy said as she re-stowed her camera, “they're at the far end of a big, open chamber, we'll have to cover at least thirty yards with no cover to get to the door.”

Resting her back against the wall of the passageway, Buffy tried to think her way around the problem because one thing was for sure, they weren't going to win by just charging straight in. After a moment or two's thought she realised she'd got nothing...no plan presented itself to her mind. Maybe it was because she was tired or perhaps it was the shock of having one of her girls killed. Whatever it was her mind was a blank.

“Okay,” Buffy turned so she was facing Fin, “I've got nothing, what about you?”

“Okay,” Fin replied slowly, “I think I might have an idea, nothing fancy and it could still get us killed, but...”

“It's better than nothing,” Buffy pointed out, “which is precisely what I've got right now.”

“Right let me through,” Fin squeezed passed Buffy so she was standing at the corner of the corridor, she fed her own camera around the corner and looked at the situation for herself; Fin took a deep breath and recovered her camera. “Look the way I see it we need to distract those sentry guns so I can take them out with the LAG.”

“Distract the sentry guns?” Buffy asked, “I repeat, you do know those things are firing 30 mill HEAP and a hit from even one of those could seriously spoil my day...like forever!?”

“Yeah,” if Fin hadn't been wearing armour, Buffy would have seen her nodding her head in agreement, “you got a better idea?”

“No...but...” Buffy did a quick visual search of the corridor walls, she quickly saw what she wanted then sighed in disappointment. The air vents she'd hoped to use to outflank the guns were way too small to crawl down even if they weren't wearing armour, “Shoot!” Buffy sulked, “Okay, we go with your plan. I'll go in low which'll hopefully give me a second or two before they target me, then you go in high and take them out, but be quick, okay?”

“Okay, I'll be quick,” Fin agreed.

After a little pushing and shoving the two women got into position.

“Oh three,” Buffy said from where she was kneeling on the floor, “One...two...THREE!”

Dropping to the floor Buffy's upper body now lay in full view of the sentry guns, using rapid fire, she started to send plasma bolts down the chamber hoping to disrupt the sentry guns' targeting scanners. As the first plasma bolts hit the guns' armour the robotic guns locked onto her and began to fire back. Luckily Buffy's fire had in fact disrupted the sentry guns and their return fire wasn't as accurate as it had been. However, it did smash big holes in the concrete walls and floor of the corridor rapidly filling it with swirling dust and lumps of shattered concrete which bounced onto Buffy's back making her armour ring like a bell.

As the first rounds started to impacted around Buffy, Fin stepped out into the corridor, levelled her LAG and sent two rounds apiece at the robotic guns. One gun exploded almost immediately as Fin's slightly lighter 25mm HEAP rounds impacted the gun's armour, penetrated and set off the spare rounds in its magazine. The other gun was damaged but continued to fire wildly until Fin put the last round in her magazine into the robot's electronic eye. The gun stopped firing but kept trying to track the two MI as they advanced cautiously towards it.

“Good shooting,” Buffy said as she walked up to the gun and pulled on some exposed wiring, the weapon stopped trying to track them and went off line.

Eyeing Fin suspiciously, Buffy again wondered whether the girl was a slayer just like her. Even with the help of her suit's systems, that had been some pretty impressive shooting and she doubted that a non-slayer could have come anywhere near as fast.

“Okay,” Fin's voice intruded on Buffy's thoughts, “How do we get through that?”

Looking at the armoured door, Buffy had to admit it looked pretty impressive, they'd probably need specialist equipment to cut through it.

“Wait a minute,” Buffy's gaze shifted from the door to the wall, “like they always say, its a million to one shot but it just might work.”

“Huh?”

“Look,” Buffy gestured at the door, “people are pretty dumb all things considered...”

“If you say so,” Fin didn't sound convinced.

“What I mean is,” Buffy tried to explain, “they'll put in a big tough lock or something, but forget that the door's only made of glass.”

“Oh I get it,” realisation dawned on Fin, “you think that if we try to break through the wall...”

“Its worth a try,” Buffy retreated away from the door as Fin slapped a fresh magazine into her LAG.

Standing about ten yards away from the door, Buffy and Fin concentrated their fire on a spot about three feet to the left of the door. The chamber was soon full of smoke, dust and semi-molten lumps of concrete. Easing off their fire for a moment, Buffy and Fin peered through the obscuration to see a fair sized hole developing in the wall.

“Give it a bit more and we're through!” Buffy cried as she opened fire again. 

“I'm out!” Fin cried as she cast away her empty LAG and drew her hand flamer.

“Get ready to throw in some grenades,” Buffy ordered.

Putting her flamer back into place, Fin took three grenades off her utility belt. As soon as Buffy stopped firing again she ran up to the hole which was glowing red hot through all the grey dust and acrid smoke. Standing to one side of the opening as kinetic penetrators and the occasional plasma bolt flew blindly through the hole, she tossed the grenades one after the other into the chamber beyond. Ignoring the explosions as shrapnel pinged off her armour, Fin started to tear at the hole to make it larger. As she worked lumps of super hot concrete and metal stuck to her armoured hands. The nanites in her body stocking rushed water to these hot spots and froze it reducing the risk of burns to her hands and arms.

Feeling Buffy join her and start to heave and pull at the wall, Fin reminded herself not to pull too hard and damage her suit. The armour was good, but it had never been designed to deal with super-human strength. Working together Buffy and Fin quickly made a hole big enough for them to climb through one after the other. The volume of fire coming from inside the chamber was almost like a solid wall by now, but most of it was slugs and what plasma weapons there were firing were pretty light stuff and not a serious threat to the integrity of their armour.

“Some how I don't think this is waste disposal!” Buffy joked as she prepared to throw in more grenades.

“Ready?” Fin asked as she held up her two last grenades.

“Ready,” Buffy agreed, “we throw these then you follow me in, right?”

“You're the boss,” Fin told her.

“On three...one...two...thr...!”

Before Buffy had said 'three', Fin had tossed in her grenades and was moving through the hole before they'd even exploded, her flamer out and firing.

“God damn it!” Buffy cried, being unable to disarm the grenades in her hands she tossed them behind her and then followed Fin through the hole just as they exploded.

Blasting a fanged fiend with chemical fire as it fired a general purpose machine-gun at her, Buffy realised that everyone in the chamber with her, apart from Fin, was a vampire. Buffy could feel them even through her suit and for a moment she felt afraid. But then she remembered she wasn't just a slayer who had to rely only on her skill and strength, she was Buffy the Power Armoured Vampire Slayer now. Turning she incinerated a couple of vamps who looked as if they were going to try and bite her on the neck. Vampires were just so stupid!

In the few seconds that Fin and Buffy had been in the room they'd reduced it to a smoking ruin. Vampires flashed into flame and ash as the fire from the hand flamers touched them. Very soon the battle would be over. Or at least that's what Buffy thought until she heard Fin scream in pain.

“FIN!?” Buffy called before remembering to check Fin's location on her HUD, the girl was only a few feet away through the smoke to her left.

Striding through the wreckage as she burnt down another vamp, Buffy came to a sort of clearing in amongst the smashed up computers and work stations. There towering over a fallen Fin McCarthy stood an old model power armour suit. Not hesitating for a second, Buffy could feel the vamp in the armour as she grabbed hold of her plasma rifle, settled the aiming pipper on the face plate of the vamps suit and fired. The old suits weren't as robust as the suits she and her guys were wearing; also the power of the modern weapons was much greater than the old suits had been designed to resist. Very soon the enemy's face plate gave up the unequal struggle and exploded into white hot lumps of transparent material. Whatever was inside the suit didn't even get a chance to scream as its head flashed into dust followed rapidly by the rest of the vampire's body. With its control systems reduced to slag and with nothing inside the suit to keep it upright, it collapsed onto the floor of the wrecked command centre.

“You okay, Fin?” Buffy asked as she put away her rifle and pulled out her flamer again.

“Just a little scorched around the edges,” Fin admitted as she climbed to her feet again, “did we win?”

“Of course we did,” Buffy laughed as she looked at her read outs on her HUD, she still couldn't get anything from anyone outside the building, it was almost like they were in an electronic bubble, “Hey, look for anything that's still working and make it stop!”

“Roger that,” Fin began to look around and smash anything that looked as if it might be jamming their comms.

Walking a little way away from Fin, Buffy came across a big plastic box with loads of flashing lights and dials on its face. Reaching out with an armoured hand she switched a big red switch to 'off'. Almost immediately her HUD sprang back to life and showed her the situation outside the bubble. A quick glance told her that while fighting was still going on, the MI were winning.

“What was that?” Fin asked from Buffy's side, “Some sorta comms jammer?”

“Nah,” Buffy shrugged inside her suit, “its probably just a plot device...whatever,” Buffy turned away from the 'plot device' and started to speak into her comms, “Hello Nine-Actual,” she called over the platoon net, “this is Five-One, urgent message, over.”

“Nine-Actual, nice to hear your voice again Snake. We were beginning to think we'd lost you, over.”

“Five-One, you should be so lucky...by the way we've won, game over, over.”

“Nine-Actual, say again, over.”

“Five-One, we won, General Sparks is dead and we've taken out his command centre, its all over, over.”

“Nine-Actual, confirm that op-force sunray is down, over.”

“Five-One, I can't be one-hundred percent sure coz there's no body, but there was a guy in a' old armoured suit, I'm kinda betting that was our sparky-boy, over.”

“Nine-Actual, confirm, no body? Over.”

“Five-One, just some ash, over.”

“Nine-Actual...ash? Over.”

“Five-One, yeah it got real hot down here, over.”

“Nine-Actual, okay, good work, go firm on your position and wait for me or Angels to get to your position, over.”

“Five-One, wilco, out.”

Buffy stood in silence for a moment before turning to look at Fin.

“You and I need to talk,” Buffy in formed her, “but first we better clean up down here.”

Buffy changed the frequencies on her comms, “Hey, Harm,” she called, “you guys okay up there?”

0=0=0=0

A few days after the Battle of Prospect had ended, Buffy and her squad came back to the General's palace with a navy search team. Going back down to the smashed up corridor they searched through the rubble until they found what remained of Kate O'Sullivan. They didn't find much, mainly smashed and bent pieces of armour and a few pieces of bloody bone. However, the navy's search team's DNA scanner confirmed that the remains were those of Kate. They spent several hours sifting through the ruins until they were sure they'd found all that there was left of Kate to find. While they were taking her back to the H Jones, Buffy realised that Kate was the first in the squad to make it to 'Citizen'.

That evening, while the rest of the squad were in the canteen, Buffy and Harmony cleared out Kate's rack and packed up all her meagre personnel possessions to be sent home to her parents in Ireland at the first opportunity. After this sad little task was completed, Buffy and Harmony called the rest of the squad to the drop room where a flag draped capsule waited to be loaded into the breach of the centre line firing tube. After conducting a short service to celebrate Kate's life, Buffy closed the breach of the firing tube and sent Kate on her last journey out towards RV-3490's sun...ashes to ashes, dust to star-dust.

0=0=0=0

Crunching through the snow, Chief Petty Officer Gibbs found another body sized lump in the snow behind a stunted thorn bush.

“Oh no,” he signed quietly; so far the Naval Criminal Investigation Service team had found almost three hundred bodies of women and girls, they'd all been shot with slug throwers, “I've found another one,” Gibbs called over his comms.

Kneeling down next to the mound he gently started to remove some of the snow with his gloved hand. After only a few moments he'd cleared most of the snow from the body.

“What have you got, Chief?” Mr Watts of the Federation War Crimes Investigation Unit asked as he came to stand next to Gibbs.

“Female, twelve or thirteen years old by the looks of her,” Gibbs reported, “from the position of her body I'd say she was shot in the back as she was running away...” Gibbs looked back towards the site of the massacre, “...she almost made it too, poor kid.”

“Don't worry, Chief,” Mr Watts said quietly, “we'll catch the people who did and ordered this, they'll pay, my god will they pay!”

“Yeah, I expect they will, Sir,” Gibbs climbed back to his feet, he gestured at the small frozen corpse, “but it won't bring her back, will it?”

0=0=0=0

In a quiet, little compartment aboard the TFCT H Jones, Buffy sat on a spare mattress and rested her head against Harmony's chest. The little space wasn't much bigger than a closet, but the two NCOs had decked it out with home-made cushions and a spare mattress that the Navy didn't need plus a few completely 'girlie' things that they'd found, bought or made. It wasn't much but it was their space, somewhere they could be alone and not have to be responsible for anything other than themselves.

“Harm,” Buffy said quietly, she was really comfortable and relaxed, Harmony's breasts were firm and made really good pillows, “you know I'm still not sure about Fin.”

“Totally,” Harmony, replied as she lay back on a pile of cushions and stroked Buffy's hair, “maybe she really is like normal.”

“Well, I suppose you could be right,” Buffy shrugged and wondered again about her proscription against screwing anyone aboard the Jones; making out with Harmony would be _so_ much more fun than doing it her bunk with a piece of plastic, “I don't think I'm going to worry about it anymore...”

“That's cool,” Harmony turned her head and kissed Buffy softly on the forehead.

“Hey Harm...” Buffy warned, although she found it difficult not to turn her head and return the kiss.

“I know, I know,” Harmony sighed heavily, “no screwing aboard ship...but couldn't we like, you know, just make out a little?”

“Make out?” Buffy thought the idea over.

“Yeah, you know like without the screwing, much?” Harmony replied.

“Well I suppose, making out isn't _really_ like 'sex',” Buffy pointed out slowly.

“I mean...” Harmony kissed Buffy on the lips, “...that's like so not sex, right?”

“And...” Buffy shifted her position, “...if I were to put my hand on your boob...you're very nice boobs you know, and kissed you back that wouldn't be sex either, that would be like two friends giving each other a hug, right?”

“Oh yes...” Harmony moaned softly, “...this is nothing like sex...much!”

0=0=0=0

In the armoury, PFC Fin McCarthy looked around to make sure no one was watching. When she'd checked that she was in fact alone she picked up the crate containing five hundred 25mm LAG rounds and placed it on the work bench. Ignoring the pry bar lying next to the crate she ripped open the box with her bare hands. It was always such a pain to have to keep hiding her strength. But if anyone found out who and what she was, she'd have to go back to the Watchers and she didn't want to do that. For a start she was doing more good out here than she ever would be on Earth, hadn't she just helped take down a whole bunch of vampires? There were never that many vamps on Earth any more.

No, she would continue to hide her true abilities and do what she could out here, then when her time was up she'd retire to some nice peaceful, green, planet and never worry about, vamps, demons or bugs ever again. In the mean time she better get on with the work Corporal Summers had given her as punishment for charging into that vamp nest without orders. Sighing to herself Fin started to take the LAG rounds from their packaging and put them in the ready round bins.

0=0=0=0

Stepping out of the front door of the Blue Parrot Bar and Grill, Amber Moore lifted her face to the sky and felt the warm sun on her face and body. Since Bobbie and herself had been evacuated to the Southern continent she'd rarely had to wear much more than a bikini and a sarong...plus a little exposed skin helped bring in customers. When Bobbie and herself had arrived on South Continent the Feds had given them both a Relocation and Small Business grant.

As it turned out Bobbie had a real skill for cooking while Amber found she had a talent for 'hospitality'. So, using the money they'd been given they'd set up the Blue Parrot Bar and Grill. Amber didn't know what a parrot (blue or otherwise) was, but someone had said it was a good name so the two young women had gone with it. While Amber worked the bar, Bobbie cooked locally caught fish on a grill out back. Business was booming and Amber had just taken on two new waitresses to help out, life was good. Of course in a hundred years or so their children would probably have to move the bar north again when the Ice Age was over. But, who knows, Amber told herself, maybe by then they could control the weather.

The sound of young voices jogged Amber's mind out of her fantasies about controlling the weather. Looking along the beach she saw a small crowd of Federation Navy and MI boys and girls walking along the sand, they stopped in front of her bar. For a moment Amber's mind flashed back to the soldier-girl who'd found Bobbie and herself on that cold day in the General's palace. As she always did, Amber hoped she was well and safe.

“HI!” Amber called happily, “Come on in, the first round's always on the house for our brave soldiers and sailors, we love you!”

The End.


End file.
